 Councilors take their seats please whatever we please rise with me and we take the pledge of allegiance. Good evening everyone welcome first item on our agenda tonight is the agenda. Councilor Bushard. Thank you President Wright. So bear with me this is a lengthy motion to amend and adopt so I move to amend and adopt the agendas follow. I move from the consent agenda item 4.39 communication from Ruston senior policy and compliance specialist Beth Anderson chief administrative officer regarding requests for authorization to sign letter agreement with UBM place it on the deliberative agenda as item 5.14 for Councillor Hanson. You can't hear me? Okay can you hear me now? Better. Note corrected version of consent agenda item 4.44 resolution appointment of doctors Jennifer Holden and Vern Bacchus to the City of Burlington's Board of Medical Examiners. Councillor Wright per Councillor Bushard. There were some technical corrections. Add to the consent agenda item 4.48 communication regarding street parking with the action to waive the reading accept the communication place it on file and send a copy to Jeff pageant interim assistant director for parking and traffic for consideration slash follow-up. Add to the consent agenda 4.49 communication Jen Swain regarding CDO amendment CA 19-07A commercial uses in the ELM zone with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 5. I mean 4.50 communication Russ Scully regarding South End zoning amendment with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.51 communication Bob Neil president engineering ventures regarding zoning changes with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.52 communication Tye Volante regarding in support of Burton's mixed use development plan with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.53 communication Brett Smith regarding in favor of allowing entertainment venue in the manufacturing zone with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.54 communication candle and wall regarding support of south end zoning amendment with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.55 communication Colin Albert regarding agenda item 5.03 CDO amendment C A 19-07A with consent action to waive the reading accept the communication place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.56 communication Paco Francis regarding accommodating entertainment venues and enterprise district with the consent action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.57 communication Penelope wall regarding please vote yes on zoning amendment for art center with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.58 communication Alex Farrell regarding commercial uses and the ELM zone conditionally allow performing art spaces with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.59 communication Rebecca Wasserman regarding Burlington slash higher ground proposal with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.60 communication Whitney Higan high Gartner regarding sorry Burton and higher ground with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.61 communication Carol. I don't know how to say these last names I'm sorry it's P Y K O S Z regarding no to rezone my neighborhood for higher ground near Burton with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.62 communication Justin Northley senior vice president human resources resources Burton snowboards regarding supportive of the proposed zoning amendment with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.63 communication Kelly Devine executive director Burlington business association regarding zoning amendment Z A number 19 dash 07 commercial uses and the ELM with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Add to the consent agenda item 4.64 communication Justin Northley SVP. I thought I just saw one of his human resources Burton snowboards to counselors pine Freeman and and city council president right regarding Burton's story with the wood with the action to waive the reading accept the communication and place it on file. Remove Z A 19 dash 0 to residential density from agenda item 5.01 public hearings regarding Burlington comprehensive development ordinances per councilor Mason remove from the agenda item 5.02 comprehensive development ordinance residential density Z A 19 dash 0 to planning department planning commission ordinance committee second reading for councilor Mason note note revised version of agenda item 5.07 resolution annual tax assessments on the property grand list of the city for the fiscal year beginning July 1st 2019 Mayor Weinberger board of finance for CAO Anderson no title change and a replaced version for agenda item 5.13 resolution request for report from the Burlington Police Department on expanding social worker support counselors Polino thank you Councilor Busher you do realize that you have now exceeded your timeline for speaking for you. Is there a second to the that amazingly long amendment. I think it may have broken a record. Councilor Jank seconds any discussion hearing none all those in favor of the amended agenda please say aye. Aye. They post we have our agenda. Next item is right before you may dial in Paul right. Okay. Thank you. Councilor Mason for reminding me we have to Councilor Paul is out of state and is going to join us on phone and could be our next item is a report from the fire commission. So if the fire people can come on up and be ready to go Jordan we need your assistance. Councilor Paul on the line. Thank you Councilor Paul. Okay. So it's the time of year for the yearly report from the fire commission. So please both just identify yourself for everyone. Give us let's hear your report. Commission chairperson Ashley bond Steve walk fire chief. And thank you. Good evening everybody. I apologize but you need to pull the microphone right in close to you better that you got to be right on it. Thanks. Thank you to the mayor and city council for allowing me the opportunity to highlight some of the details in the commission report that you have in front of you. The first point I want to highlight is the Burlington fire department is very busy. You'll see that there was a 3% increase in emergency calls over the prior year and that compounds a 30% increase over the past 10 years and we expect that increase to continue year to year. So we're we're very busy department. With the support of the Burlington citizens we took delivery of two new apparatus this year. This investment improves the reliability of having the right equipment available and service when needed. It also provided the reliability for the firefighters to have the safe equipment that they need the right equipment the right place at the right time. So we really appreciate that investment by the city of Burlington. Along with a new apparatus the department started working with computer aided dispatch this year which relied heavily upon significant programming by the department to categorize and design response plans. That was a big achievement and the outcome of using this risk-based model has resulted in a 24% reduction of unit movement throughout the city. So that was a great investment a great outcome and we continue to look forward to see how that can improve as we stay very busy. With regards to stations while there is a successful renovation just waiting for its final inspection tomorrow at station 2 that's going to allow it's a project that was to address inadequate donning and doffing facilities at that particular station. We're very excited about that being complete but I also want to emphasize a lot of the deferred major capital infrastructure investments in the stations are going to come to bear soon so it's important that you know station one and station three that are the oldest stations and in the city their greatest risk due to their age and finally while it's not in this 2019 report the Commission urged me to kind of emphasize the expanded marina down in Burlington we have I think 400 new boat slips going in down there and I'm we're particularly interested in the impact on the fire department with that additional real estate so to speak and constituency that would be down there we will likely be highlighting that impact if there is any impact in our next year's report but I just want the Commission was really felt strongly that we needed to to bring that kind of attention that we don't have a boat and we're a waterfront community I'm sensitive at the time we did put together it's about a four-minute video it's on board docs if you want to watch another timer play it now deferred it to the council president I know you have a long agenda tonight so we can go right to questions so well deferred to you council butcher so I had a couple of questions but but when you brought up the marina so where does the delineation between the fire department and the Coast Guard have cancer but you can we just first decide if we're going to hear that video or not that was actually posed as a question whether we're going to take good to question me can council just give me indication if you're fine with just going to questions that the video is is on our we haven't everybody good with that okay great question and so certainly when I before I moved here I would have said the Coast Guard is the rescue agency for the city and I would not have thought anything differently about it the you know certainly the Coast Guard has a mission but it they typically are often are not even in port here or they're out doing other parts of their mission so while we rely on them we also rely on Shelburne or Mallets Bay for both for a rescue boat or for fire protection of anything else on the water so we own the water we own a section of that but we our capability is reliant on other agencies so just to keep to this topic I don't recall seeing and that doesn't mean it wasn't there in the budget any allocation of funds to deal with these kinds of situations and I think of you as dealing with structures and emergency response with as far as with an ambulance etc but I really didn't think about responding to boats and so I think that would be well served to understand as as this marina gets operational really what that impact is to you and the delineation between Coast Guard and Fire Department and it is a low risk right it is a very low risk and low frequency event it's just it is one of those things that we don't necessarily have the capability for the capacity currently to manage so my questions before you mentioned the marina were really straightforward you mentioned the use of iPads do you does staff use iPads like after you're at a fire to capture notes or information regarding that or is that not what happens occasionally so even like today we had a small fire in the old North and I saw them pull the iPad out and use that to capture video and photos so and they use it for we have we have a language line for facilitation of building to speak for interesting for translation services so they use it for that they use it for complete their medical reports and currently we're using it now for mapping and other capabilities in the fire trucks my last question is alarms and false calls 1100 last year where is that to previous years consistent there's without a doubt it's consistent thank you very much the good report I appreciate it and thank you for everything you do good department I'm proud of you thank you we all are thank you council for sure any other questions for the chief or the chair of the Commission councillor Jang thank you commissioner thank you chief this is more of a comment than a question but I can include a question into it a couple weeks ago I've been in a car accident right in front of your station this station downtown the car hit me from the back I was driving a big van and before even I realize it your officers step away from the station and run cross the busy road and came and checked in with me and the passenger that I had as well as the drive the other driver who he does and it really struck me the risk that that guy took skiving into the circulation to get to us and it was not even his job basically but I'm telling you this because I was proud of what he did and I just wanted you to know I never reach out to you about it it was just incredible he even called the police for us before we realize it and I think when we talk about safety that's exactly those type of things that we want to see more and more so the other thing that I reached out to you basically two days ago is we have been seeing an ambulance in the new north end lately and we know we don't have one but for the record if you could maybe let the people know why that ambulance is there and what is the plan to have an ambulance for the new thank you so in late April we relocated the ambulance from the old north end of station 2 to the station 4 for the renovation we only basically are working out of without having a bathroom out of that station to have five people assigned wasn't going to work so for temporary temporarily relocated that unit I suspect by Friday it will be back down to station 2 and so the plan is I think somewhere you are aware an agreement that we will re look at this issue of March 2020 about a potential the cost and the ballot item to put a stack full-time 30 bills in the new north end thank you for that and I was also just looking at the the data here the number of calls that you receive which one are fires and all of that and I was wondering if it's possible not today but another time and I'm interested to kind of break them down by word where do you get most calls in the city what specific word and this is just not a pressure but whenever you have the time I would want to know this break down into it thank you so much for your work and very welcome yeah thank you councillor jane any other councillor question hearing none thank you very much for that report appreciate it thanks for the good work now we will move ahead to the public forum was a time certain for 730 and many people lined up to speak so it will be two minutes tonight just make sure that you speak into the microphone have it really close to you so we can out here and you have a you'll have a lighting system in front of you when the middle light goes off you are rolling down to about a minute or so when the red light goes off you need to conclude your final sentence don't make it a long long sentence or then I will have to cut you off otherwise because there's a lot of people to speak and we've got a lot of business to deal with so we'll open the public forum with Jennifer Regno to be followed by Jennifer Decker yes good evening welcome and again just make sure the microphone is pulled right up close to please thank you how's this that should be good okay a couple of weeks ago while I was home brushing my teeth the f-35s from Utah roared over my head blasting my ears and vibrating every cell in my body maybe some of you here also heard that noise the f-35s that will be based at the airport will be louder because they'll have to use their afterburners during takeoff that's for takeoffs and for landings a day what will noise at that level due to our children I think it's going to be toxic I've read about her permanent hearing damage and impaired learning but what else will we be learning over the years my sister's son and his family live near the airport on Forest Street their nine-year-old daughter attends Chamberlain Elementary School she has Down syndrome she has sensory issues with normal loud noises they terrify her living and going to school within the 65 decibel day night level sound area will be very bad for her it's going to be very bad for all the children who live or go to school near the airport it's going to be bad for pregnant women for old people for anybody in that area are we supposed to lock the children inside never opening windows or allowing them to play in their yards or in the playgrounds will that really solve the problem I think the first step is to educate ourselves on the noise fact especially study the new Air Force noise map we have to protect the children I don't think we should let them become victims of commitment we've allowed our politicians to make I think we have to stop the f 35s from being you can finish your sentence so close to where we live thank you Jennifer Decker to be followed by Benjamin Waller good evening welcome thank you I'm speaking in favor of the Burlington City Council resolving to ban the basing of nuclear weapons in Burlington at the Burlington Airport even though our congressional delegation states it won't happen this is factually incorrect and it's important for the City Council to hear the information that persuaded our state senators to pass Senate Resolution 5 our resolution banning the basing of nuclear weapons in Vermont one of the people who testified was air guardsman retired Lieutenant Colonel Roger Barossa who said that the f 35 nuclear delivery system is an existential threat to our region he stated that as a crew member on the f 89 with v tang that he was tasked with carrying nuclear weapons and that they were stored in Burlington at the airport he said crew members were never told precisely where they had been stored nuclear weapons were armed at times when aircraft and crew members were on alert status and the Department of Defense in the Air Force never told the public so he knew that we could have a nuclear mission without you knowing without the governor knowing without the legislators or the public knowing about it Roger now has a master's degree in international relations and on the basis of everything he learned he also stated many conflicts are initiated by blunders mistakes miscalculations and failures this is just the tip of the iceberg with the type of catastrophes that having the f 35 based in a civilian neighborhood could cause so I strongly urge the Burlington City Council to adopt a similar resolution to the one that the South Burlington City Council and the Winooski City Councils both adopted recently thank you very much thank you Ms. Deckard hold the hope no no no please be respectful and no applause Benjamin Walleter is up next we followed by Al Kenny Ali Kenny good evening and welcome good evening thanks so much for the opportunity my name is Ben Ked Walleter I'm here as a proud citizen of the South End and in my capacity as Executive Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and I'm here in strong support of the Zoning Amendment 1907 a as a resident of Ledgewood I regularly take industrial Ave and couldn't be happier with the idea of having two established innovative responsible homegrown companies like Burton and higher ground working together to continue the long-standing tradition of embracing the arts in the South End over many years higher ground has been an increasingly supportive partner to the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and it has been our joy to regularly collaborate and co-present performances with them by allowing performing arts centers in all parts of the enterprise district district we'd be creating more opportunity for organizations like the VSO and higher ground to bring an increasingly wide range of live living music to all the monitors from bluegrass to Beethoven the increasingly diverse mix of businesses artist restaurants retail etc have made the South End a hive of creatives creativity community making our neighborhood one of the most desirable in the region I've built my life and livelihood on the idea that music and the arts bring people together of diverse backgrounds and identities as I see it opening pathways to bring people together is at the very heart of this amendment and something that will only make our neighborhood stronger friendlier and safer when opportunity knocks pessimists get scared and dial 911 the optimist sets the table my view is that the table is set opportunity is sitting out on the doorstep and we just have to open the door and let her in so thank you very much for your consideration let's not miss this chance to make Burlington even more awesome thank you thank you and I've just been reminded to let the public know that there is a public hearing during the zoning amendments there'll be a public hearing so if someone wants to speak during that public hearing you can you don't have to speak during that a lot of people are signed up to speak about that in this public forum that's fine I'm just letting you know there is also a public hearing later when this issue comes up with that welcome and you have the floor hi I'm Ali Kenny and first I want to start with a confession I've lived 12 and a half years in Winooski I had a huge yard gardens chickens dense development affordable housing diversity I was it on the DRB chair of the Environmental Committee etc and I made the decision last year to buy a home on Scarf have in the south end I was almost afraid to tell people I was leaving Burlington I convinced dozens of dozens of friends to buy homes in Winooski and it was a really hard decision to make and why did I move one we wanted to live in the epicenter of where we can live love and enjoy life we wanted to be right where art creativity entertainment restaurants my work I worked at Burton for over 12 years the lake great schools and my wife is due to have her first child in just three weeks and we're literally a stone's throw away from this development I if I was worried about noise I wouldn't be raising a newborn there Burton has guaranteed that we're gonna make the building soundproof I would also be worried about traffic if we didn't have the Champlain Parkway and the city's commitment to walk by to this location we are one car family I wish we could be zero and that's why we chose Burlington we want to walk bike and do everything where we live including the great city market now and I wanted to close with one last thing a headline from NPR that says millennials continue urbanization of America leaving small towns and cities we are at risk of this and it's not just baby boomers it's generations it's a multi-generational generational pattern of young adults preferring this small towns will have to hustle recruit and maintain millennials by urban density and putting what we want to do close to where we live so please consider this amendment changes hard but positive change makes for a better world thank you thank you miss Kenny Craig Smith is up next be followed by Evan Gould okay Mr. Smith welcome thank you very much it is real quick I'm here to talk and support the rezoning in the south side you know I think there's been a lot of talk about the positive impact and some data supporting that in 2015 the world excuse me international properties organization organization based in Geneva Switzerland with 192 countries membership basically stated that music drives economic value what they stated was a vibrant music economy drives values for city in several important ways it fuels job creation economic growth tourism development and artistic growth it also strengthens a brand's identity that's our city's identity a strong community music community also attracts highly skilled young workers in all sectors for whom quality of life is a priority so I think this is a great idea from Burlington in a supportive number second thank you Evan Gould good evening welcome I wanted to speak as well in support of the development for higher ground in the south end and the zoning that goes along with it I'm a resident of Red Rock so also stones throw away from the new development can you pull the microphone in closer please sorry yeah so I'm a frequent attendee at higher ground currently I know across the street from there the noise is almost nothing so I don't have concerns about the noise levels in the neighborhood the other concerns traffic is I think being addressed by the Champlain Parkway and lastly increased crime I think is a thing that people not in support of this have said in general music venues as far as drinking establishments tend to have lower crime rates that's from problem-oriented policing they did a report on that so I once again have no concerns on increased crime in my neighborhood that said the south end continues to have reputation as a place for art and performance and I think my generation at least having more and more things in and around our neighborhood I've seen the condo development I live in become occupied by younger and younger professionals who live and work near that area and are attracted to the fact that we can bike and commute and be able to walk to a lot of things taking more cars off the road so that's thank you. Thank you Mr. Gould appreciate it. Up next is Mike Vialco Casey and everyone again just make sure to pull the microphone in right close to you and you can tilt it up if you need to. I'm good. Hello I'm Mike Vialco Casey I'm a Burlington resident of board 7 and I am an employee of Burton Snow Boys. We talk a lot about what's smart development. We talk a lot about how do we create a vibrant sustainable community for Burlington for the next 10, 20, 50 years. We talk about how do we keep our young talent here, our kids, our college graduates, how do we attract young professionals and talent and build new vibrant business communities for the 21st century. This is smart development. The building's there. There's no more impervious. The parking spots are there. We're taking a building that has seen its brighter days go by and reinventing it. This community is always evolving. It always has been. The manufacturing down there evolves when Burton moved to it. It's been changing always. Pine Street was full of manufacturing that's upon the time. I don't see this as really that radical of a change. It seems like it to some people. But in the grand scheme of things, we're constantly evolving and we have to. There's a quick anecdote. My son, who's 12 years old, has decided that Burlington is a po-dunk nowhere town that he can't wait to graduate high school and move to a real city. He's a rabid Seahawks fan so he'll be off to Seattle. But it just makes that sort of thought more personal to me now. He lives in a cool place. He's growing up in a cool town. And I wanted to think so. I wanted to think someday after I've had my fill of New York City or Seattle, yeah, I'm gonna go back there. Burlington's a cool place. So thank you all for your time and consideration for this. And I do encourage you to vote yes on changing the zoning for the light industrial manufacturing system. Thank you very much. Erin Kennedy is up next. We followed by Doug Goodman. Good evening, Ms. Kennedy. Welcome. Erin Kennedy, I am a property owner within the Red Rocks condo association at 161 Austin Drive. I urge you to vote yes to keep the Enterprise District Zoning Amendment moving. Like many of my peers, my husband and I chose to relocate to Burlington and specifically purchase property in the South End. Specifically for amenities and experiences like this project we provide and we firmly believe that our property values and our opportunities for rental property or rental income will increase. So I urge you to vote for a more progressive view on a mixed use industry and manufacturing. Thank you very much, Ms. Kennedy. Doug Goodman is up next. We followed by Charlie Messing. Could I move my time to the zoning conversation? You can speak to whatever topic you want to. You can wait. You can wait till the okay. Yep. I'll put you into the public hearing. Thank you. Charlie Messing. Good evening and welcome. My friends, Mr. May. This is a decibel meter. It's very interesting. When I'm talking like this, it's 80. When nobody's talking, it's 50. 10 decibels means it's twice as loud. A great opportunity is coming. July 4th or should I say July 3rd. July 3rd is coming and you can hear some fireworks. Fireworks are 150 decibels. So picture the loudest ones that you hear at the waterfront. Lasting a minute instead of a second. That's right. That's what we're going to get. So I have a feeling that people who think it's going to be okay are going to think it's not once they come here. The other thing is the buses. Okay, the College Street shuttle. Each schedule is horrible. It's gray on white instead of black on white. It's very hard to read. The blue line is not represented with the color blue. It's not on the buses either. The purple line isn't purple. The red line isn't red. They have a horrible schedule and a horrible way of implementing this. You have to look up the word R-E-D to know red. And the College Street shuttle is every half hour. And at six o'clock in the evening, it becomes every hour. Okay, there's three hours till sunset all summer and the bus will be every hour. It's going to need some tweaking, some serious tweaking. Today is the first day of the new schedule and we shall see. Very good timing, Mr. Messick. Casey? Yes, Casey. I'm having trouble reading the last name. I guess that's what the university says. Multiple issues, multiple problems that I'm going to keep having when we want to put an end to this. My late business man is living in town. Seven years is a beautiful thing. Have no Medicaid. I like to show people. You'll decide teeth. Seven years, that's what. I had to pull my own teeth out when I guess what. I only had two years. This is the document for white collar crime, J. N. Elmstair and missing Brompton police force by taking my for us to hear you. You've got to pull the microphone in close. Nice and Jane Homesteader and Mr. Taking my Medicaid near Brompton police force sitting here. Took the Medicaid, took me BT. My mother has been stuck on the street, say the now she's 874. It's been real because the family had had massive issues because a family member was either a drug addict or a federal rat and that's what either be either. He's a male. It's my life history center here. I presented it to you, Mr. Whiteberger. And the other day in the 70 and I walked in here nice and always nice and plays as plays. I'm talking to you came from out next to my walk out the door to the broken cop. I said, what's your where's the reason for that? This isn't the last that you go home on me and my mom's 874. You've got to rush to the rest woman that smoking or a problem. My mom is need help. That's what really three years at work. I've been in every single don't housing purpose since I've been homeless. Right. My Medicaid is gone. My mental health was shut. Right. Your attention. You're normal. So does everybody else trying to steal them off. Okay. Now these are the blacks that you guys are allowed to get away with it. Okay, that is like totally wrong. As far as Steve Marshall will only send back to me. There's a little mean there's a little meeting on there's a little meeting on this 16 seconds. So you guys need to address a lot of stuff in your housing and Medicaid and also my work history. You guys screwed me out of a life of life history because I have not committed any crimes. I got documents team that I'm a rapist. I'm a snapper, you know, and these are the things that need to be dealt with. Thank you very much. Rob slingerland is up next to be followed by former city councilor Dave Hartnett. Mr slingerland welcome. Thank you. My name is Robert slingerland. I am the chief steward for IVT local 597 representing drivers at GMT. I'm here to let you guys know about my disappointment in the outcome of the driver who was terminated. Let me be the first to tell you that any questions do you ask GMT on the 3rd of June? You didn't ask enough because he's not the first one to remove students off those school specials. I have removed them off my boss and I'm still working there. His situation went political and we all know why it went political with him being the scapegoat of a system that has failed us for years. The school system will come out with rules one year, pull them back the next year. GMT did the same thing. Every driver that does those neighborhood specials are driving them with no clue as to what they're supposed to do in a situation when that bus becomes unruly. And again, I have had those buses, multiple drivers have had those buses. And those kids on their worst day can be unbearable. You cannot drive that bus with buses that are loaded with kids that are acting like that. He wasn't excused in the scapegoat because this went political and it went viral fast. All the above. What I'm saying here is I'm disappointed because we have been screaming for years about the failure with that system between GMT, the school system, the parents, the city. I have meeting notes where we brought it up. When are we going to have a set policy in place? Let me get back to you on that. And now a driver has paid the price and I'm just I just came because I wasn't invited on the third to speak on the drivers behalf. Okay, you can finish your sentence if you I just wanted to come and express my disappointment in the outcome of that driver. And in those that think he deserved what he got. I think you need to ask more questions. Thank you. Dave Hartnett to be followed by Barbara. When us. Thank you. I'm also here to weigh in on the bus driver situation. But before I do that, let me say this, I haven't done my homework on the Bertman situation, but I'm sitting back there listening to people speaking in public form. And I guess on the face of it, I would say, let's not say yes to Don Sinek's and no to Burton. So moving forward, let's make sure I agree. I think it's smart development. I think it's good development. And I agree with the public speakers here. And I think it would be great to have Burton. And so I hope we can push that zoning through. Just quickly on the bus driver. It was a rush to judgment that cost him his career, attend your career, a hardworking individual. It's unfortunate. Right? The facts of the story were not true. When they first came out, and city counselors took it upon themselves to rush to judgment without getting all the facts. And when all the facts were in, and everyone saw the video, and I got to tell you, it was handled well by CCTV, you know, the video was transparent, you saw the actions. It wasn't just the black kids that were moving the bus. It was all the kids that were misbehaving from the bus. Let me go on record and say I disagree with his decision taking those kids off the bus. It was a it was a bad decision. But what do we do here in Burlington? What makes us so special that what we do is we help people, right? We teach them. It was a decision. So he made a mistake. And now he's lost a 10 year career, something that has a family of mortgage bills to pay. He's without a job because he made a mistake. I think that's unfortunate. When we talk about moving people accountable, and we're going to draw a line in the sand and we're going to start with a local bus driver, and we're going to cost him his career. This council overstepped. There's no question about it. I'm not sure what's going to happen. I know it's an appeal. I don't know the bus driver wouldn't know if he walked in that door tonight. That's not the point. We cost this man his career. And that's unfortunate. There was one counselor I believe was Councillor Paul that tweeted out this was life changing. This could be a life changing situation for these kids. I would argue that we've had a lot of life changing situations that have happened here in Burlington, a lot more severe than a bus driver making a mistake. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Hartnett. Barbara Wynner off to be followed by Gary Asbury. Good evening and welcome. Thank you very much. I'd like to address two issues. The first is the F 35. It's really the military stated intent to have a three pronged approach to delivering a small atomic bomb. And one is on land. The other is on sea. And the third one was is via the F 35 in the air. This is quite true. And I don't know if you know about that. And this to me is just absolutely frightening and horrible. We at one time in the past had I guess voted for a non nuclear state. And this is certainly not following what those wishes are. And what I'm sure the wishes of most people here are. The second issue is city place. And we had a gentleman come to NPA number six, speaking about city place. He said nothing. He didn't answer any questions. And it's so discouraging. We don't know what's going to happen. He was supposed to talk about what the plans were for the future. He said absolutely nothing. This doesn't make us feel encouraged as to what is going to be done in regard to city place. Thank you. Gail Asbury is up next to be followed by Stephanie Herrick. Good evening, Ms. Asbury. Welcome. I'd like to speak with respect to the Burton situation and the policing that might need to be done by the city of Burlington. I think it would be I found it would be beneficial to determine how many times police were called to higher ground within the past year. So what I did was I contacted the South Burlington Police Department and asked public records and asked them to run a query for me about that. I thought it would come back with perhaps 10 or 20 incidents that the police were there. I was shocked when it came back with 119 incidents within the past year. If you take away the police discretion, which was about 30 something incidents, there were multiple types of things such as and I'll just name a few fighting intoxication accidents, leaving the scene of an accident, welfare checks, drugs. And it's only reasonable to determine that if this venue takes place in Burlington, and it's going to be even larger, that the police will have to be called even more so to that particular venue. So I think that as a city council discusses this and determines whether it's viable for the city, they need to take the policing into consideration also. Thank you. Thank you very much. Stephanie Herrick. To be followed by Elisa Nelson. Good evening. Welcome. Good evening. I'm Stephanie Herrick. I at one time in Burlington owned Herrick Limited, a CPA firm. And I'm stating that because I want you to know I'm not anti business. But business belongs in the right place. The Vermont Symphony is downtown in Burlington. And they have a concert sometimes that arts riot on Pine Street. I enjoy all this are we all do. But I live now at Red Rocks condominium. And there are 156 condominiums there. And I'm representing Red Rocks 3b, which is the one up at the top. And we hear everything that goes on down Industrial Avenue. And Industrial Avenue is rightly zoned for light industry. And there's Edland, Rhino Foods, Burton. And I don't think higher ground, which has been on Houston Road with 115, 119 police calls at 11 o'clock at night. When you're in the summertime, you've got your windows open, you're going to hear not not the inside because they're talking about protecting that. But you're going to hear when they get kids get out and they get into their cars. And it's surrounded by, you know, Queen City Park, Ledgewood, other other residences and I just don't think it belongs there. Thank you. Thank you. Elisa Nelson is up next. We followed by Stephen Hamlin. You want to move yours into the public hearing? You got it. Stephen Hamlin is up next to be followed by Brett Smith. Good evening, Mr. Hamlin. Welcome. Good evening. Thank you. I'm Stephen Hamlin. I'm the president of the board of the North Avenue co-op worth 113 unit low low income nonprofit mobile home community on North Avenue, included in our tenants, our least 13 Vietnamese families, 20 rental units, mostly section eight. We had a community cleanup on Saturday this past week in which the city and our counselors paid for the dumpsters. And we had a metal dumpster to put the metal in to keep it separated and we had hazardous waste and recycle, which I brought down to Pine Street after we were all done. A cookout followed where counselors Hartnett and Polino actually paid for the food. And we've been working for three months to have this happen to get everybody to clean their yards up. So I'm here tonight as a change of pace from what you guys are used to, to thank counselor Dan, counselor Polino, counselor right next counselor Hartnett and the mayor for what they've done for us. They've attended some of our meetings. They've helped us out with many things in the past. And I was really impressed that counselor Polino and the mayor showed up with their clubs and climbed in trucks and took stuff and threw it into dumpsters instead of just uses a social hour. They really did help us a lot. And we really appreciate it. So personally, and as a representative of the community, I just wanted to come here and thank you guys for what you've done. It is a very big gesture. And that's it. Thank you. Take an extra couple minutes, Mr. Hamlin. I couldn't stop him. Okay, Brett Smith is up next to be followed by Christian. Dutch and Dutcher. Yep. Move you over. Christian. Good evening. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for all that you do for the city. I am a resident of the South Cove neighborhood. I'm within largely a stone's throw of the proposed music venue. I'm in my early fifties. I've got two young kids who like to garden and do typical sort of neighborhood things with all of that being said, I am in favor of the proposal at Burton. I am because I believe that the parties involved are responsible stewards for the public good. And I happen to think that sometimes resistance to these proposals are things that leave the city in a less vibrant position. And I moved to the south end in part to enjoy the vibrancy of the immersion south end of Pine Street south end of it. So I'm just a voice who is in favor of it, despite the fact that I do have some concerns. Ultimately, I would vote yes, if given the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mike, Michael Williams is up next to be followed by Maria Hummel. Good evening, Mr. Williams. Good evening. Thanks. Thanks for the opportunity. I'm not in support or I'm not against the higher ground on industrial. I'm a resided 91 Austin Drive FN since 1999. I just need to say that there are definitely some issues that we need to consider before allowing or not allowing. One is being the traffic. Right now, whenever there's a Burton sale every summer, that neighborhood when it's in the heyday of the sale when it was really, really popular when they'd have four or five, 600 cars there. That neighborhood was a really, really bear to get in and out along with CCTA. I'm excited to have higher ground in the neighborhood if they're going to be responsible neighbors with the noise and making sure that you know, everything that needs to be considered such as the parking coming in and out of there. It just seems like with CCTA with noise battle that we've had for the last 20 years with rhino foods, the same thing. Us neighbors as much as we think we're all for it. We're all excited for it. We love higher ground. We do reside there. We do have to live with the noise. If there's always different battles, I've gone over to CCTA and boxer shorts early in the summer at 5am because buses backing up with the beams going on and they're not supposed to be doing that, especially with the turnover. So it's just we're tired of having a battle of just in that, you know, having another issue. So please do your new diligence and look at what needs to be done and, you know, other vote yes or no. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Maria Hummel to be followed by John Greason, Geason, Gearson. Thank you. Good evening. Welcome. I'm here also to speak on Burton and higher ground and similar sentiments as my predecessor. I think it's very possible to be very pro growth and pro the kind of cultural development that we have in the south end and that is marked the south end and that higher ground could bring and be concerned about the pace of this zoning change, outstripping the infrastructure being ready for the traffic impact that higher ground could present to the neighborhood. I live on home Avenue. We have a traffic impact that's greater than the street was built for. And I plead with the council to think about us, perhaps a staggered zoning timeline that fit with the completion of the south end of Champlain Parkway. Thanks. Thank you. John Greason to be followed by Grayson King. Good evening. Welcome. Hi, my name is John Creason. And I'm here to speak for the citizens of the south end who do not have vested interests in the Burton higher ground development. I find it somewhat cynical that a lot of people have come up here and said their south end residents without revealing their connection to this project. Anyway, so I live on 174 Home Avenue. I have a 12 year old son as well, who currently sleeps in my basement because the traffic is so loud on Home Avenue that he can't get a decent night's sleep. We live about 60 feet from Home Avenue. Cars. I'm sure you all know going through the Champlain Parkway project that the city and state have been well aware that Home Avenue was not built to handle the traffic volume that it currently has to handle. The Champlain Parkway is promised. It has not begun. There have been no shovels in the ground. I am pro-prote innovation. I go to higher ground. But bringing, dropping the state's largest rock club in the middle of a residential neighborhood that has one residential street to transport patrons in and out, I find to be, I just can't believe that that's actually on the table. The Champlain Parkway can alleviate some of the traffic, but there are zoning regulations for a reason and spot zoning for one corporate entity, I find, to not be fair to the citizens of the south end who do not have a vested interest in higher ground to convert to the end of that location. Thank you very much, Mr. Creason. Grayson King to be followed by Rosetta Weber. Good evening, Mr. King, welcome. I'm Grayson King. I've been a resident of the south end for over 20 years. My wife and I have really enjoyed the growth of retail spaces and restaurants and businesses and arts venues that we've seen in the south end. And we feel strongly that the zoning amendment furthers this growth in a positive way. We think the Champlain Parkway will mitigate the traffic issues that many people have raised. And so we are all in favor of the zoning amendment. I'd like to say that I have no association with burden snowboards. Thank you. Thank you very much. Rosetta Weber is up next. We followed by good evening. Welcome. My name is Rosetta Weber. I am connected to burden snowboards. I'm director of programs for the Chill Foundation. Burton's nonprofit, our offices are in the building where the development is being proposed. And I'm also a resident of Burlington and very much so in support of this project. Coming from a slightly different perspective at Chill, we work with youth coming from a whole host of different challenges right here in Burlington, as well as Winooski. We work with youth in the Winooski School District, Burlington, South Burlington, Howard Center, NSI, Gene Garvin, Rock Point. I could run through a whole, a whole long list of agencies and youth and adults in this community that we work with very closely and who come to the space where our offices are for our programs for our snow programs and for our skate programs. And we see this as an opportunity to really expand that community and expand those opportunities that our youth that we are working with are introduced to the community that they are a part of. So it's really an opportunity to progress what the youth that we work with are able to become involved with and really kind of grow with this community in a different way that maybe they aren't necessarily exposed to in their everyday lives in their neighborhoods. So thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Weber. Charles Simpson is up next. We follow by Wendy Bratt. Good evening, Mr. Simpson. Welcome. Thank you all. Leonard Cohen has an insightful song titled As Everybody Knows, which runs everybody knows the dice loaded, a deck is stacked. We all know the F-35 dice are loaded since 2013, meaning that rationality and the voice of the public are beside the point. Rational considerations, the thousands of our scarce affordable housing units, housing on which our economic growth depends, will be rendered unfit for residential use, or that our children's cognitive development will be put at risk, or that rational considerations at the increased risk of nuclear conflicts, and the end of organized human life as we know it will be enhanced by these death machines. Where do we go when rationality no longer is relevant to public policy? What do we do? I suggest we call on you, our local elected officials, to display courage. Courage to stand up to the political industrial mafia that is shoving these planes down our throats. Courage to stand up against Congress and the military industrial complex and say loud and clear, Burlington will not host the F-35s. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Wendy Bratt is up next to me, followed by Lori Smith. Good evening, Ms. Bratt. Welcome. Good evening. Thank you. I'm here as a Queen City Park resident and a lover of Red Rocks Park, which is a South Burlington maintained park, but immediately across the street from Burden, as most of you know. I'm all in favor of higher ground. I raise three sons. We're all music lovers. We go all the time. There are 100 something events that happen at higher ground every year. Fantastic. I love it. I'm just not positive that this, I need to be convinced that this is the right location. If you said to me, oh, let's put it in Haniferns, the old Haniferns, or the new, the old Haniferns, the soon to be old Haniferns, grocery store area, I'd say great. You're not 360 degrees surrounded by neighbors. We live in a quiet area with access to a lake and a little green that all the houses face. My concern is that we are going to have people coming down there and spending time after a concert. I was young. You were all young. You probably went to concerts and when I went, I love defined natural areas afterward and I'd come out pretty, you know, with pretty loud affect to me and I'd go and find a park and Red Rocks is already overflowing. It's, it's sad. It's so beautiful. We all want to share the beauty of it and yet someone gets hurt every year jumping off of the cliffs and I can see it now. It's a full moon night. There's a good concert. People know about those cliffs and a couple guys dare each other to jump in. I want to be sure that we as community are keeping everyone safe. I do have the incident report that's on the incident search result report that someone else mentioned. 115 was my number, not 119. Lots of opportunity for attempts to protect all of our citizens. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Bratt. Laurie Smith is up next. We followed by Wes Hamilton. Good evening. Welcome. Good evening and thank you and I'm also a Queen City Park resident and would like to reiterate what Wendy just said but I also think that and I want to start by saying I am very pro higher ground, very pro bird and I think that it's an area that is in need of gentrification and being better utilized. However, if you look at the location and you look at its relationship to Red Rocks Park to Queen City Park to the lake to 119 incidents a year or in the last year at higher ground. People coming out of higher ground at 11 o'clock at night going, oh, there's a basketball court down the street. Let's go play basketball. There's a lake. Let's go jump in the lake. It's not a great location for containing. They can contain what happens inside the building but it's very hard to contain what happens before and after the venue outside in Red Rocks Park in Queen City Park in the neighborhood on the lake and I would encourage you folks to either use Google Earth or come down and actually visit the site. Look at its proximity to what is a very quiet place and bringing a rock and roll venue on a regular basis to that area is a bit of a concern and there is the Hanford building that's just becoming empty and it's could be ideal but I just think we need to look at how to address those issues and make sure that that quality of light piece gets preserved. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Wes Hamilton is up next to be followed by James Mark Lees. Good evening. Welcome. Thank you. Appreciate your time. I am Wes Hamilton and I am not a resident of Burlington. I am here regarding the zoning change. I'm one of the owners of the Mad Taco and I appreciate Allen and higher ground kind of getting all the heat on the project but I do pivoting towards other aspects because it's not just higher ground that's going in and part of it which I'm here to speak to is there's going to be a food hall should everything go through and pass and this project go through and so partnered with the owners of Misery Loves Company and we're very excited the food hall concept as a real community anchor and an open space. The food hall concept allows multiple restaurants in one shared communal space. Our vision is really about places where the entire community can get together and we are very excited to bring our commitment to livable wages, to green practices, to sustainable and locally sourced food. These are the values that we have for our restaurant and I think we'll be creating a few dozen jobs in doing that and I think bringing more than just you know how now higher ground is at Burton so I just want to speak in favor and speak to a little bit more of what what this project will be bringing to the city. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Hamilton, James Mark Lees to be followed by Robin Lloyd. Good evening Mr. Lees, welcome. Thank you. The basing of F-35 jets in a city violates the laws of war and puts the city of Burlington in violation of the law and this was all described in the U.S. Department of Defense law of war manual that was put out three or four years ago and shows that the harmed civilians without military necessity is illegal. It's not just a matter of choice. The Air Force has admitted that they had choices for where to base the F-35 so it was not a matter of necessity to base it in a city. The problem here is that the F-35 is being based amidst three cities and four towns with tens of thousands of people and the Air Force admitted harms to those people, hearing laws, learning impairment of children and most of all targeting because the base for a nuclear bomb delivery system like the F-35 will be targeted by those who have that capability and are considered enemies. So we need to stop the illegal situation by canceling the F-35 and bringing in a mission for our air guard that's compatible with its location in a city that doesn't violate the military's own laws that prohibit basing of equipment military equipment in a populated area. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Lee. Robin Lloyd is up next to be followed by Monica Koskinemi. Good evening. Welcome. Well good evening and continuing the theme I would like to speak about the use of firefighting foam at the Burlington Airport. This foam has been and will be used by the military in training exercises and on base fires. It's not just used in emergencies it's routinely used to prepare for emergencies. So washing off into our runways and into sewers and wells it's called per and poly four acolyte substances or PFASs are amongst the deadliest chemicals ever developed. The chemicals in this foam is causing a potential crisis in drinking water contamination and has reached epic proportions around the country at military bases. These forever chemicals do not break down in the environment they continue to contaminate ecosystems drinking water sources soils sediments and even food. They accumulate in domestic animals wildlife and plants and they accumulate in our bodies over a lifetime. They are associated with many cancers infertility and miscarriages and immune system prenatal and early childhood development disorders. The current EPA acceptable level for PFAS is 70 parts per trillion. In a report on the final site inspections report of firefighting foam used at the airport issued in January 2018 in that report PFAS as high as 72,000 PPTs parts per trillion were found this is just a reminder that the EPA level is 70. So we have to look into this before we accept any planes like the F-35s coming to our airport. This is a potential disaster. Thank you Ms. Lloyd. Monica Kaskinemny. Monica okay moving on from Monica Laura Waters is up next. Good evening Ms. Waters welcome. Thank you I'm reading a letter from Megan Emory vice chair of South Burlington City Council. Dear colleagues on the Burlington City Council I'm writing to convey the concerns of the residents of a historical neighborhood Queen City Park one of the oldest in the city of South Burlington. You will be considering a post change in the zoning in the south end of Burlington in order to accommodate Burton's plans to integrate a performing arts center on their campus. 76 residents for presenting over three quarters of the total households in Queen City Park have submitted a petition asking both of our councils to oppose any plans for higher ground to relocate there. They cite numerous concerns which you've already heard about. They're valid concerns about potential impacts on our road infrastructure, the surrounding neighborhoods, and Red Rocks Park that should be considered carefully and ideally in concert with South Burlington authorities. Red Rocks Park is nestled between the Burton campus and their lakeside neighborhood. It's a tremendous South Burlington resource. It's cherished the local treasure that generations of South Burlington's and visitors have enjoyed for its trails, beets, forests, naturalists of long studies as plant animal species. It's an open park accessed easily on foot from many entry points. We have to continually communicate with park users about the risks of jumping from high cliffs at all too common occurrence especially among college age visitors. Queen City Park has long attracted people who seek a natural environment with access to the lake and nice sky. It's a quiet neighborhood whose residents have long been stewards of the park and many of them are dedicated active members on our city boards commission. I ask you carefully consider their quality of life and the importance of the natural environment in this area which they so carefully tend to is you weigh the pros and cons of the zoning change under consideration. As you and I know city planning is a delicate process particularly within areas with established zoning patterns. Please give this decision the thought, caution and deliberation it deserves. Sincerely yours, Megan Emory, Vice Chair South Burlington City Council. Thank you. Thank you very much. John Callow as we followed by Carolyn Bates. Wait till the next one. Our final speaker in the regular public forum is Carolyn Bates. Good evening Ms. Bates welcome. Good evening. Welcome to all of you and thank you so much. Can you hear this sounds like I'm not we can hear you. All right so thank you. I am from the Ward 5 20 Caroline Street and I started business here in 1973 as a freelance photographer and I bought a house in 1978 and I will have to admit that I've taken photographs both at higher ground and at Burton and I know the people involved and I still think it's a great idea to have them here. I'm actually very excited. I've been very proud as a promoter with all of these companies that are really for my homegrown you know Ben and Jerry seventh generation magic hat IDX and Burton and they're great companies and I think we should see some way that we can work with them the fact the very fact that Burton's been looking for a tenant with maybe 10 years and higher ground does not have a place to live. I would really really love it if we could figure out how to bring them here let higher ground return to Burlington where it started and work out all of the essentials. I don't think you should make a decision tonight. I think you should look a whole lot more at traffic and road infrastructure and security and and get some more facts in front of you before you do this. I would also want to say is that we really need more businesses into Burlington since we now have a hole in the ground called them all and what we lost two three four five million dollars how much we're all pure per year that we want companies to come back into Burlington that want to be here that will help our tax and let us welcome them and be easy on them. Thank you. Thank you miss Bates and that concludes tonight's public forum. We will have another public hearing on the zoning changes proposed zoning changes but that concludes item number three. We will now go back to item number 2.02 which is a report from the planning commission former counselor and Montrell now chair of the planning commission. Welcome. Pretty to see you here as always. This is no reflection on you but you really seem to be clearing your own. Good evening. I'm Andy Montrell. I'm the chair of the planning commission. I'm here with David White who is the director of our department and Megan who is our comprehensive planner. We have we presented the council with the with our annual report for 2019 and as you saw in our report if we had a pretty active year we had I think it was about 10 zoning changes that we considered some of which are in front of you tonight actually. Two other big items that we did were the our plan BTV comprehensive plan for the city that we spent quite a bit of time on. Megan particularly spent a lot of time working on that one. We had many many public hearings on that and brought it again to the full council and it was adopted this past March. Along with that we had the south end plan BTV that was also adopted at the same time. The other big item that we had in front of us was the consideration of the of the charter changes to reconfigure the planning department. That was something that was adopted by all of you and by the folks of Burlington and so that's a major item that will be really in front of us over the next year as we look to see what impacts that has what changes they'll be and how we'll be all working together and that's something that's going to be continuing. Those are the items in the report. Beyond that though I just want to touch on I think really the thing that's most important for all for all the work that we do and that's all the people that participate in this process. You just heard from a lot of the folks and we've heard on the planning commission we heard from a number of them as well but we've heard from many others on a lot of the different items that we've considered over the past year and I think the public participation public process has been an amazing part of the decision making process that we have and a major part of what makes Burlington such a strong community. Obviously the folks that we've worked with our staff have provided just tremendous support for us. We couldn't get anywhere close to what we've done without the hard work of our staff. It really makes us look good. We get a lot of the credit for what they do but it's really a lot of the work that these folks do and then on my fellow planning commissioners it's just been a real pleasure to work with them over the past year. We come from a wide variety of backgrounds, a wide variety of opinions and at the beginning of a lot of our discussions we don't always agree with everything. In fact we rarely agree with the different items that come in front of us but we really work together well and we make a real effort to bring it to a consensus to really listen to the public, listen to the recommendations of our staff, listen to each other and then be able to come up with the recommendations to pretend to you the city council and we'd like to thank you for the work you do, the consideration that you've given to all of our proposed zoning changes that we brought in front of you and thank you for the input that you've brought back to us. I think it's been a real good collaborative effort and I look forward to continuing that effort in the future and with that I don't know if either of you would like to chime in. I'll just add one thing because Andy won't say it himself but he made reference to the planning commissioners themselves that put in a tremendous amount of hard work on the commission and as part of the commission's various committees and just this last fall Andy was recognized as the volunteer planner of the year by the Northern New England chapter of the American Planning Association for his dedication not just to the city of Burlington and this planning commission and city council but to the Chittin County Regional Planning Commission over the many years. Congratulations. Thank you. Commissioner Montal, former Councillor Montal. I think that and I know that that's not the first award that you've gotten because I remember you getting one when I was in Montpelier. That's right. Thank you. Anything else? That is it. Do you have to take any questions? Questions from the council. Councillor Bushard. Not a question but just a comment. You know I planning is what I loved and I can't be as at as many meetings I do try to make a lot of them though and I really feel that we are so well served by having a diverse commission because I wouldn't want everyone to see Burlington the same way because the residents don't see Burlington the same way and I think that's what really makes it so important that you all bring different perspectives and that ultimately you bring forward zoning proposals that are reflective of the diversity of all of the people and what we think works best for our community so I just wanted to acknowledge that and I think all of you do an excellent job. The other thing was in your report I was delighted to see that David and Megan were joined by Sandrine. Oh my goodness. Doing a presentation in San Francisco entitled Plans as Catalysts for Change and so it just brings all of those great lines together and I'd love to hear more about it not tonight but I'd love to hear more about it but anyways thank you very much the report was very complete and I appreciated it. Thanks. Thank you Councillor Busher. Anyone else with Councillor Sheenan? Thank you. I just want to really thank you Commissioner Montrell. I think that your intelligence and your wisdom and your spirit of collaboration has really brought together a group of people that did not always get along so well because not just the case that you know it's a kind of a new group of people but it's really your approach that you have have taken that brings people together and I appreciate the way in which we are at times polar opposites and admire the characteristics that you have that I lack and I aspire to. And I will ask my my standard question which is can you tell us a little bit about how and if the planning commission is working with the other development boards to make sure that issues that come up at the boards in terms of the practical use of the ordinance are addressed by the commission. Yes, thanks. Great question. We actually do that in a couple different ways in a variety of different ways. One is annually we're trying to do it in January but we have an all planning development zoning board with the various different boards that are involved and with staff there as well. So we have and here are large groups sitting around we spend a few hours going through what the different issues are that the different boards and commissions have seen. And then on our on our ordinance committee or our planning ordinance committee it's made up of not just planning commissioners but a representative from the development review board and the designer view board as well. And then we also engage in other ways as well but those are probably the two main ways that we engage. We also have David and Megan regularly see what happens on the other boards or other staff members regularly see what happens on the other boards and they bring it back to us as well. And I'll say finally members of the public come to us on a pretty regular basis and say you know we were just in front of the development review board and we got well blocked with this issue where this issue came up you know does it make any sense and so we we see it from that perspective as well. Thank you councillor Shane and anything else for the planning commission and the director councillor Jack. Thank you and congratulations to Montrall. So I think one of your biggest accomplishment is at least to include North Avenue into BTV the plan BTV. I think that's amazing. And but I wanted to ask you one question because I was talking to a city council this weekend around the bulletin proposal and if you can explain the correlation between BTV south end plan and the bulletin proposal are there anything there in terms of mix use in terms of the zoning that you can highlight for us. Sure I'll give an answer and then actually see if either of the two of you would like to provide one as well. So the plan BTV south end really looks towards a vibrant diverse wide variety of activities in the south end and when we looked at the it wasn't so much the bulletin proposal because on the planning commission we don't look at specific projects we look at the concepts of whether performing art centers should be allowed in the south end and we saw that there was a lot of compatibility with what the the art district performing arts is a type of an art the art district would have for there but we also frankly share some of the concerns that people have and so one of the things that we look to is to have it be a conditional use where a lot of the concerns that people have could be addressed on a specific project basis so rather than saying from the planning commission perspective rather than saying that no you shouldn't allow any of these performing art facilities there to say yes we see a strong possibility that it could be there but the as always on a lot of these the devil isn't in the details and a lot of the concerns again that people rose tonight are ones that the developer view board would be looking at if a specific proposal came forward so I don't want to say we didn't have the Burton in mind because they were obviously there others were there as well but ultimately looking at it as a conditional you seem to make sense to us so that's what was recommended to the council and Megan will go into this in a little bit more detail with the ordinance amendment itself but it really is trying to strike a balance with what we understand is you know our desire to have manufacturing and job creating kinds of uses in the south end and the challenge of cost and value of space and we constructed this ordinance in such a way that we use land uses like a performing art center and cafes and those kind of non manufacturing types of uses as a way to help to leverage and to subsidize that the manufacturing types of uses because there's a correlation between the the amount of space that can be dedicated to one versus another because we want to ensure that there is a continuing kind of manufacturing making presence in the south end Thank you. Councillor Chen. Councillor Hansen. I have a question related to the additional units for residential is now the appropriate time or should I wait for that agenda item to to ask that question? That that has been removed. Yes. Oh that item is removed. Okay. Can I can I ask the question now then? Go ahead. Okay. Sounds good. So I just wanted to get some clarity on the the recommended change around an additional residential unit in in low density areas and just was hoping for a bit more of an explanation on on that. I think the the principal issue here is that a lot of clarity in the ordinance where within the low density residential districts that are that are identified as being primarily for single family and duplexes there are this kind of backdoor provisions that says in these circumstances under these situations an additional unit can be added to any sort of multifamily. It's not clear it's not up front we'd rather see that types that type of allowance be offered with greater greater clarity than kind of hidden in the ordinance someplace. So it was the original proposal was to was to strike it. I think there's some further consideration about what kind of an impact does that have on the city's housing crisis and our need for more housing units is there a better way to to do that rather than strike it to modify the ordinance in a more productive way. So that is part of an ongoing conversation. Great. Thank you. Thank you councillor Hansen. Any other councillor? Hearing none thank you very much for that report. We appreciate it. Item number four is the consent agenda councillor Busher. Yes I'll move to adopt the consent agenda take the actions indicated. Moved by councillor Busher seconded by councillor Pine any discussion? Hearing none all those in favor of passing the consent agenda and taking the actions indicated please say aye. One more time all those in favor with the consent agenda passage please say aye. Thank you that passes unanimously and we will move now on to the deliberative agenda. Item 5.01 and that is the public hearing regarding Burlington Comprehensive Development Ordinances ZA-19-02 residential density has been removed ZA-19-07A commercial uses in the E-LM zone and ZA-19-07B commercial uses in the E-LM zone. Anyone who would like to speak but actually I do have a list of people so we will start with see where was first I think we're going for the end we'll start with Chestin Gordley Good evening welcome Good evening thank you Plans are catalyst for change I love that quote and that's actually why we're sitting here the idea that we would make a request to consider a zoning change actually came in part by Plant VTV Southend and the Champlain Parkway so I think it's without those two things I don't think we would have arrived at this idea that we could do something really different unique in our site we've had a lot of communication with a lot of people over an extended period of time about what we're trying to accomplish and why and what the background is so I won't go into that but I just want to reinforce a few points the first is that this is our Plant D so Plant A for us about this facility started in 2007 when we purchased the building and Plant A sort of went out the window pretty quickly with the recession and a bunch of things that happened to our business and so we've worked really since about 2010 on alternatives and we've had two of them that have kind of gone and so this is really our Plant D right now we're pretty actually pretty excited about it maybe people aren't usually excited about Plant D but we are about this one the second thing is you know this has been a big learning curve for me personally for Burton we haven't I don't know that we've advocated for it with the city for anything like this we've been at this for over a year and I'm really really humbled to be part of this process working with the city I really just want to echo just exemplary staff work that's been done at times it's felt frustrating it's felt slow it's felt too deliberative but the care and attention that's been given by the mayor's office CEDO planning BCA the airport public works along the way has been we've felt supported and challenged all in the same same token through that process as you know we've been through the planning commission that voted unanimously to pass the zoning amendment we've been through an ordinance committee meeting that happened several weeks ago with a two to one vote to get to tonight so we're excited to be here even though there's been a lot of work and like I said I don't think it would be possible to have a very balanced amendment in front of you for a decision without the dedication of all the staff we've also have worked really hard at talking to the public and we'll continue to do that we've hosted over 15 tours and open house sessions for dozens and dozens of residents and businesses of people interested in the projects we've been to multiple NPA meetings we've talked to countless people one-on-one and we'll continue to do that so I just want you to hear loud and clear that our commitment is to continue that engagement with all of you with the appropriate people within the city and our neighbors to make something really special and you know that's really I guess what I want to what I want to end my thoughts with is that you know Burton is a global brand actually half of our business is outside of the U.S. we're in locations all over Europe and Asia Pacific and if you walk into a store in Queenstown New Zealand or in the Seiko Japan or in Zurich or in Montreal or Santa Monica you are home it feels like Burlington like this is this is our roots this is really where we are and what we've done is we think put together a really interesting unique proposal to stay here stay rooted here stay anchored here we don't want to be anywhere else because what we do is we actually export Vermont and we export Burlington around the world ask people about Burton snowboards and they say Vermont very quickly and then they say Burlington and so we want to you know that's really the reason why we're here is that we want to keep that in one sentence and also we're just so humbled to have a just an amazing team of other businesses and entities that have come together to put together a just a really cool opportunity and we really encourage you to consider that we're fully invested in conditional use and we understand there are a lot of concerns that we need to get worked out and we obviously will not get a permit if that doesn't happen so we know that work does not just end here this evening so thank you for your support and consideration thank you Mr. Worthley Doug Goodman is up next and we just appreciate everyone's comments being as brief as you can thank you welcome and thank you I'm probably the closest body landholder to the Burton site I'm at 364 Queen City Park Road and my concerns purely traffic I'm sure the sound will be dealt with the security will be dealt with by the police I'm sure South Burlington will be happy to have Burlington pick up on the policing of that but most people in Burlington don't spend a lot of time driving over that one way bridge on between industrial Queen City Park Road that bridge that bridge frequently has I'm called episode to people back off because other people race down to the bridge multiple cars racing across the bridge forcing their way in front of other people when you try to turn on to Shelburne Road sort of end of work day you find 15 or 18 cars backed up to where Fran Yose is and it'll take two or three changes of traffic light to get on to Shelburne Road the typical route going south from Queen City Park Road is through the Kmart parking lot I don't know where that's going to go when when they complete construction of Haniford but the traffic issues are going to be a real problem and I don't know where the southern connector is going to come through and how that's going to relate but Pine Street is going to be cut off so people aren't going to be able to come back into the city from Queen City Park Road they're going to have to come across Home Avenue which has already been addressed but I think it's purely traffic I have to say Burton has been very generous I was on a tour they talked all about their project I think having a food court there is going to be fabulous it'll be a great amenity for the neighborhood but I think that their projected traffic is conservative the number of people per car that are going to be coming into that parking lot I think their estimates of the number of cars are much lower than they're actually going to have I think a traffic study needs to be done perhaps putting people at higher ground counting the number of cars and the number of bodies in the cars to get a better sense of how many people are going to be in the cars especially as it's going to be a much larger venue that's basically it I think that the traffic has to be looked at and to be honest I think we had some people who were with the transit commission who were here earlier I'd like to hear what they would have had to say about driving on those roads at different hours very trucking uses Queen City Park and industrial so it's a there's having that number of cars and I live in the Queen City Park neighborhood but I own the property in Burlington the stop sign at Central Avenue on industrial is optional when you come off the Central Avenue you better stop when you make a left turn on the Central Avenue you better be very cognizant of the fact that half the cars don't sell to that stop stop so getting three, four hundred cars in there for a concert it's it's going to be really dangerous and it and I think it's it's being played down that's really that's my my that's what we are thank you thank you Mr Goodman Kelly Devine to be is up next we felt like Brett Smith good evening Miss Devine welcome good evening I'm Kelly Devine I am the executive director of the Burlington Business Association I just want to say very quickly that the two conditional use the two zoning amendments from Poston I think really will help drive what's already a really evident vitality in the Southland it's an amazing growing part of the city and we certainly have looked at the opportunity for I think creative and imaginative reuse of manufacturing space and I think that adds to this opportunity I think it's important to note that it is presented as a conditional use so this isn't a Burton project vote it's about the use of all of those industrial spaces and that there'll be opportunity when the permit for that moves forward as it is a conditional use to discuss things like noise and traffic and I I feel like in my conversations with Burton that they're very committed to allowing the residents in the area to be heard on those issues also it would be I think really great to have banking opportunity in the Southland thanks thank you Ms. Devine Brett Smith to be followed by Elisa Nelson and can everyone try to use the mic on the right hand side my right I think that may be a little bit better and then keep it close thanks thanks my name is Brett Smith and my wife Elisa and our three young children and I live on Austin Drive near the South End manufacturing zone and I'm here in support of the zoning change I feel this change will make the South End a more vibrant and livable area when I moved to the neighborhood 20 years ago the building that we're talking about was a weapons manufacturer I view the contemplated uses under this amendment as vastly more favorable than that or then sticking with what a more limited zoning could bring to us in the future and arts and performance space feels bright in line with the series of other positive changes we've enjoyed in the city including improvements improvements in Oakledge Park the addition of city market the soon to be new rock climbing gym the addition of talent skate park and as I learned tonight tacos to me it's phenomenal that my family my neighbors and I could walk to each of these venues soon I'm also a co-owner of a marketing agency that employs over 40 Vermonters and as a business owner I view this change is good for retention and recruitment of young professionals in our region in our state and finally I understand and trust that the issues related to traffic safety and noise can and will be addressed through the permitting and review process and through responsible management by the businesses involved thank you thank you Mr. Smith Elisa Nelson is up next good evening welcome Ms. Nelson my name is Elisa Nelson I live on Austin Drive and I'm probably one of the my husband and I are probably one of the closest homes to the front door of the Burton facility we literally look out through our backwoods what's left of them after rhino foods cut down half of their trees and look across the field and right in their door so we can hear things like the people turn the lights back on please when people are jogging on the industrial parkway we can hear them we can hear them talking to each other we can hear their footsteps we're that close I want to say that I spent 16 years of the 27 years that I've lived in this neighborhood on the Ward 5 NPA Steering Committee I've worked to try and create good zoning changes good ordinance changes find the right business for the right place we've worked hard to get Cumberland Farms in on time street there are a lot of things that we've done so I'm not anti-business certainly not anti-burton my husband worked at Burton for many years has several patents in his name at Burton for very good products don't really know higher ground that much never been there it's not part of my lifestyle but that's okay I'm not too concerned with the music side of it I am very concerned about the traffic and the safety the entire South Cove neighborhood Red Rocks condominiums phase one, phase two, phase three allegedly condos east and west basically our one access room in and out of that neighborhood is over the railroad tracks at home avenue the railroad tracks that are an absolute disaster by the way that you bottom out and rip the bottom of your car off because they're not maintained the concern of traffic backing up there when there's a train going by and getting in and out of this venue with potentially maybe 500 cars or 500 cars at a time leaving higher ground to get to one of the roads cutting through neighborhoods etc it's not a pretty picture the concern is not so much to say no to higher ground no to Burton the concern is to say when to say yes the time to say yes to Burton is when and if the queen city park road is actually built but I'm sorry not the queen city park the parkway Champlain Parkway is built if it is built and it's running the way we have been promised it would actually work that we don't see big backups of roads I know this concern at the lakeside neighborhood for example how traffic going to get in out of that neighborhood how is traffic going to get in and out of our neighborhood how is it going to work once it's proved that it can work and that it can handle the extra volume then it's the right time to say yes in the meantime I think we should do what was done for arts riot on pine street pine street a very busy quarter which has many ways of getting in and out of it was limited to 5000 square feet as a compromise I would beg you basically to come up with an amendment to say that you can approve this one little tiny portion of this entire ordinance make it 5000 square feet instead of 15,000 square feet just until the green the Champlain Parkway is built if it's built and if it works then revisit it it's easy to go from a small venue to a larger venue it's almost impossible to go the other way thank you thank you Ms. Nelson John Callow to be followed by Ben Traverse good evening welcome John Callow I live in the south end a long time Burlington residents since 2012 in Ward 5 thank you speaking here in favor of the proposal and in full disclosure I'm working with Burton on this exciting reimagining of the Burton campus a couple of points I'd like to make one is that I think the planning commission in approving this proposed amendment correctly recognize that the market forces that are in play throughout the south end extend all the way down to industrial parkway it doesn't end at home the exodus of a light and heavy manufacturing such as specialty films general dynamics a logic pizza that's what 400,000 square feet of space that has left the city that those same forces are at play down south of of of all matter and the planning commission heard from not just Burton which has 30,000 square feet of a vacant space which is Justin mentioned is plan B plan A would be try and try as they might to fill that space with zoning compliant uses but those uses are not there they've left and they're not coming back so I think the planning commission heard that from Justin but also the other property owners Jim Foster from Edlin as well as Rhino and Rhino foods and so I think that that played into their decision to try to strike a balance to really kind of open up these properties to a more varied and mixed use concept but one thing I think that that the city council needs to remember is that you're not holding the weight of the world on your shoulders this is just the beginning or a continuation of a process I think that the planning commission understood it the ordinance committee of the city council also understood it and moving it forward to this full body and that that in approving taking action to approve it if you move in that direction well what you're doing is allowing an application to be filed as a prior speaker said it's when to say yes well we're not there yet this an application will have to be filed and the applicant will have to demonstrate that that it will meet on the undue traffic impacts noise impacts any other impacts that may be associated with the project so with that I encourage you to move forward thank you thank you very much Ben Travers good evening evening Mr. Travers welcome evening thank you name is Ben Travers I live in the south end at the corner of home out in the Pine Street I'm the father of two young kids a four-year-old and a one-year-old at the outset I want to say that I've been a big supporter of our mayor and this council's efforts over the past few years as you look across Burlington many great things are happening in due part large to this council the mayor as well as the planning and zoning folks and I'm proud of where I live but tonight I have to ask that you please at least temporarily pause consideration of the zoning amendment before you we've heard from some folks in the neighborhood down Austin Drive and South Cove but when folks leave higher ground they're not going to be heading in that direction they're going to be heading up in my direction anyone who comes down my way during regular hours knows that it's heavily trafficked at midnight it's quiet imagine if you will now that quiet being interrupted by 400 cars leaving a late night show at the same time pulling up to our four-way stop one by one as they venture back into Burlington imagine more cyclists riding down streets without proper lighting or markings imagine pedestrians walking through yards without sidewalks and across streets without crosswalks I'm not here to complain about Burton or higher ground Burton has come to our community meetings I might count them a little bit less than some of the numbers that were given tonight but they've come to our meetings they've fully explained their plans to my satisfaction and I trust they will engage in due diligence before the development review board that due diligence however the conditional use review process that would be the next step if you were to approve at this amendment will only touch the four corners of Burton's property Burton can't put in new sidewalks or lights down the street Burton can't paint dedicated bike lanes Burton can't replace a one-lane bridge with a two-lane bridge on Queen City Parkway Burton can't put a more sensible traffic signal at my intersection that's your responsibility as you know the enterprise light manufacturing zone is currently designed for just that light manufacturing Plan BTV South End which solicited years worth of community input imagines a future where we double down on industrial use in the ELM read the report it talks about this neighborhood specifically and talks about doubling down on industrial use nothing about arts in that future infrastructure upgrades don't have to make the same considerations of traffic, pedestrians, cyclists coming and going from late night gatherings if you approve the proposal before you tonight however you will be approving a material alteration to our neighborhood maybe that's a reality demanded by the economics of maintaining light industry in Burlington but if that's the case the city can't simply change a few words in the zoning ordinance close its eyes and hope for the best leading up to tonight I've been to the planning commission I've been to the ordinance committee I've asked the same question of the city how are you going to accommodate this alteration how are you going to live up to your side of the bargain how are you going to protect the interests of all south end neighbors to date the question has gone unanswered tonight I still don't think you have the answer to that question and that's not okay a few years ago this council amended south end zoning provisions to permit the construction of the Flinn Avenue city market the co-ops a great community steward I frequent the store and I'm glad it's there the city however has done little to nothing to accommodate its presence the traffic patterns at Flinn Avenue and Pine remain dangerous pedestrian and cycling infrastructure is inadequate street parking is a mess and brick street is in a constant state of disrepair awaiting the construction of the Champlain Parkway only now years later is the city beginning the process of catching up to addressing these issues I suppose it's less harmful to play catch up with a single store with limited hours but we can't play catch up with an entertainment hub which is most recently recorded will have an indoor skate park up to three to four restaurant partners and a late night concert venue my young kids the other young kids in the neighborhood can't afford to play catch up with that type of use I'm not here to say no way to burden I'm here to simply ask that you hit the pause button if you want the ELM to be a commercial zone as well let's bring in DPW to figure out necessary upgrades let's wait for the parkway let's consider building the southern portion before the northern portion let's bring in Burlington police to see if they have sufficient resources to police this area let's talk to Green Mountain transit about its ability to service this area let's do a little more due diligence on our end before forging ahead thank you thank you Mr. Travers that completes the list I have unless anyone else wants to speak come on up but just identify yourself Alan Newman I am a partner in higher ground among other things and I apologize for not signing up it was not my intention to say anything tonight as I figured all topics would be well covered by others I'm here only to discuss one thing is to clarify this 115 police calls that I keep hearing about I heard about it last week and I contacted Chief Burke who's the chief of police in South Burlington and asked him what this was about he said well we broke it down he said first of all it was 115 calls not 115 visits and sometimes there are five calls in a given night where the staff of higher ground is keeping our police department informed of what might be an issue there have been two arrests in this time and the police force of South Burlington believes that we have been an incredibly responsible neighbor and one of the reasons I didn't have the nerve to ask Chief Burke to come here tonight to talk about that was frankly South Burlington has made it clear that they would prefer to keep us in South Burlington than have us move but given that I did ask if he would please speak to his ex-boss Chief DePoso and talk to him about what a reasonable expectation for the Burlington police department might be should this be approved it is my hope he did that and it is my hope that Chief DePoso would be willing to talk to your group to talk about the issues that have arisen and how well the higher ground staff has worked with their police staff to deal with issues and solve problems before they got out of our parking lot so I just wanted to clarify that while yes there are 115 calls to the South Burlington police department those calls had a wide range of impact and most of them were in an attempt to work well with the South Burlington police department to make sure that no problems got outside of both our venue and the parking lot thank you very much yes thank you Mr. Newman yes ma'am I'm sorry I can't hear you I wanted to speak yes come on up just I please start out by identifying yourself okay I'm Janet Schneider and I live in Queen City Park I didn't sign up I'm sorry but I just wanted to address the issues of Red Rocks Park and the concern is if people are partying after the venue closes and they've had a number of drinks they can become rowdy and if they smoke that's another issue for fires in the park if they head out to Red Rocks Park they can go down to the beach have bond fires there and you know it's it can be a danger to us who live there and I'm very concerned about the wildlife as well also the other concern is when people are inebriated they may be wandering around our neighborhood and I think there is an element of concern about what might happen we have basketball courts and we have different places that they might want to hang out and maybe be loud but also concerns about break-ins and various issues plus the fact that I don't know how well soundproof the venue will be but most places it seems to me will leak some noise and we're close to the lake and as many people know water enhances sound so there is that other element to consider thank you very much thank you anyone else hearing none we will close out the public hearing and move forward to item number 5.03 that is the comprehensive development ordinance commercial uses in the ELM zone this is one that Councillor Mason has recused himself from and Councillor Busher was the chair of the committee so I'll look to Councillor Busher to make a motion the second reading and adopt the ordinance and after a second I'm like the floor back seconded by moved by Councillor Busher seconded by Councillor Roof Councillor Busher you have the floor back thank you first off the committee was made up of Councillor Shannon Councillor Roof and myself and those of us who don't live in that section of the city Councillor Roof and I both did go down to where Burton is and look at that location so just to respond to some of the comments that were made during public input I just wanted you to know that the other thing I wanted to state before we get into the nitty gritty of this is that the way the way ordinances come about are either from the public making requests like me and I've done that on behalf of citizens that I represent or the commission or can make a request the council can make a request the planning commission as I said can make the request and it moves through a process of discovery and input and public hearing and if it Pat comes from the planning commission then it goes to the city council for first reading and then gets referred to the ordinance committee in this particular scenario the process began in November of 2018 with a discussion by the planning commission and then there was a public hearing on January 9th of 2019 and then the planning commission on January 29th moved to approve this and forwarded to the council the council it was first read and referred to ordinance on February 11th of 2019 and then the ordinance committee as I described took it up discussed it for two meetings one on May 7th and the second one on May 14th so I want to let people know that I really value and really need to know that the public was informed and had an opportunity to weigh in during a process and so that's the intent of me sharing these dates and letting you all know about the process having said that I'm well aware that we all live busy lives and sometimes you find out about things late in the process so for tonight for those of you who first came tonight or sent communications we'd read you if you were here at the beginning of the meeting you heard me read a laundry list of communications that were sent by email from a number of people who were in either support or opposed to this proposal the ordinance itself as I said can be motivated by individuals or or anyways can be motivated by individuals this the ordinance got motivated by requests made by to planning regarding and it's divided there are two it was divided in two but one was for banks to be put in the south end and the other had to do with broadening the industrial uses because there was an inability to find industrial uses to fill those faces and how do we keep them vibrant and how do we keep them present without losing all of the industrial uses and so there was a proposal to broaden the definition of industrial uses and and to also broaden what else could be incorporated into those spaces in a way that would not be dominant but still be significant so what does that mean that the industrial use needed to be 51% of the building and the other uses would be 49% of the building space so that is how this came forward and yes a bank wanted to be present on pine street and yes the conversation began with Burton looking for partners and how higher ground saying this might be a great place for us to locate but the ordinance is not about higher ground the ordinance is about uses that are compatible as I described with industrial uses and so I want to be very clear and I know that one of the counselors during earlier asked about this whole process and so what's being proposed is conditional use so that if indeed this ordinance passed then specific proposals could go before the DRB and that's where all those questions that are frustrating all of you that have remained unanswered would get addressed as far as traffic and and all of the other things the pedestrian and bicycle access all of those things would be presented and should be addressed during that process so I want to I know that some of you feel like they're not adequately addressed but that is the way our system works so I wanted to kind of lay the foundation some of you know the process very well others don't and so for those that know the process forgive me those that don't I'm just trying to give you some background so that you're aware of how this works I'm going to say a couple of other things and then I'm going to turn it over to Megan and David for more detail regarding this specific section of the ordinance it came as I stated with um a an enhancement to the industrial uses and the performing art center that could be incorporated could have been 49 percent of that space if you go down there as all of you know those are big buildings and it concerned me as one of the members of the committee what 49 percent would would actually equate to and it could be almost I think 40,000 square feet so I came back to the planning department and said I think in order to protect the residents from something that would be too big for that location that could we consider a cap and so David and Megan looked at a what memorial the size of memorial auditorium in the space that was used for performing arts at the Flynn and came back with a proposed cap of 15,000 square feet and so the resolution the ordinance that came from planning was further modified and that cap was applied this performing art center would be south of home avenue for that square footage the it would maintain the 5,000 square foot limit and geographic limit to pine street performing arts centers on pine street as north of home avenue having said that I'm now going to have Megan and David talk a little bit about how the uses have been expanded and the new definitions that are now present in this ordinance and any other information you'd like to share with the council and the public thank you before you do that actually I apologize but I want to recognize council mason I'm sorry I just want to move fast I just want to note for the record for the council for the public that I'm you know I've accused myself consideration of this matter under our conflict of interest rules and I'm now going to go sit in the audience thank you council mason thank you councillor busher actually gave a very great high-level overview of this amendment and some of the process that was included to get us here before the planning commission even started deliberation of this amendment though there was a lot of conversation about this request and how it actually applied to what plan BTV said about the south end one of the things the first conversations of the planning commission actually had was just about this about how we find a balance between what plan BTV south end says about this part of the enterprise district and then the neighborhood as a whole and the specific requests that came requests that came before them so that's been something that has been a beacon through all of these conversations is how do we balance the need and the goal to preserve industry and manufacturing within the furthest reaches of the south end with the reality of the market and the evolution of the neighborhood in terms of what types of commercial uses are located there and what types of commercial uses can really coexist and support one another there to add a little bit of additional detail to what councillor busher shared this amendment strikes that balance by doing essentially three things the first is by updating some of our definitions around industrial manufacturing and art production uses think about that as all art unrelated to performing arts really clarifies that these are the types of uses that we want to prioritize south of home avenue and the furthest reaches of the enterprise district and then in doing so in order to protect those uses because there's currently no protections of those uses in place in our ordinance we established a relationship among the industrial manufacturing art production uses and what we are we are referring to as general commercial uses so everything else not related to making things and said that if we want to have these general commercial uses on lots in the heart of what we consider to be our the part of the enterprise zone that we need to protect for industry they need to exist on lots where industry or some kind of making activity is happening in order to actually support and leverage that making by subsidizing the cost of space essentially and then finally the amendment looks at what are the appropriate general commercial uses that might be able to support those industrial uses and that's specifically where the considerations for a number of the considerations that came before the planning commission fall into performing arts venues in this case being the one major change to what allowable uses would be permitted in the enterprise district specifically with a size limitation on industrial parkway so the rest of the amendment addresses a number of technical corrections it applies a footnote that that institutes that relationship between industrial and nonindustrial uses to dozens of uses in the use table and updates definitions and other sections of the ordinance to make it consistent with those goals Thank you. I didn't want to say one other thing this came to the full council with a two to one vote Councillor Roof and I supported it Councillor Shannon voted against it but she wanted it to move forward to the full council for consideration Thank you. Thank you Councillor Bushard Councillor Shannon Thank you President Wright I have several questions is it okay to ask these questions of staff Yes. The ordinance first I want to kind of alert the council that this ordinance is very complex and after a couple hours at the ordinance committee we made the revelation that it actually said something very different than we thought that it did and responded accordingly there's many elements of it and the crux of it is actually in a footnote so I don't know if you all read the footnote that was presented sideways in our packet because it's part of the use table and the use table that's the way it's oriented when you look on your computer but in the language of the proposed change not the footnote but the regular part of the ordinance it says the combined gross floor area of all other uses I'm sorry within the ELM district uses unrelated to industrial or art production are permitted to be located on lots south of home avenue only when one or more industrial and or art production uses exist on the lot and combined gross floor area does not exceed 49% of the gross floor area of the lot and I asked this I asked this at the committee and I can't actually remember the answer but how does it work if for an example a large performing art center were to reside on a property with an industrial use and the industrial use were to leave what happens to the performing art center that is only allowed there as an appendage of the industrial use performing arts venue or any other non industrial use that is existing would be allowed to continue but the space that was vacated by the industrial use would be required to be filled by another industrial use one or more industrial and or art production uses exists on a lot that would not be the case I don't think if that use actually left as long as the performing arts venue or another general commercial would only be permitted if an industrial or art production use was already existing when that was permitted I believe that's a debatable point but I'll leave it at that thank you how does there have been a lot of concerns raised about how traffic will be managed how noise will be managed and various issues like that those issues aren't addressed in this part of the ordinance but I believe they are addressed in our ordinance and can you speak to how those issues are addressed in the larger ordinance and how it would be reviewed at the DRB sure so the zoning ordinance basically breaks uses into two different categories there are permitted uses and there are conditional uses so the choice in this in this case is that these non-industrial or art production uses are allowed as a conditional use the performing arts center is allowed as a conditional use so that an application will be filed and it would go to the development review board who would review the application under all of the criteria associated with conditional use review which include under undue adverse impact on in this particular case traffic is the principle issue that many have raised but it's also going to look at other infrastructure look at air quality water quality a host of criteria that the DRB would review the project as part of a public so when proposals come to the DRB under the conditional use accepting like your individual what they like an individual homeowner or something when a business comes with a proposed conditional use how often is that outright rejected by the DRB like in the last year can you think of any cases that have been outright a rejected by the DRB were conditional uses I can't say out the top of my head specific conditional uses that you know that a denial rate of the development review board is more on the order of two to four percent of the application so it's a it's a small number but typically the process is more to do with ensuring that a project fits rather than thumbs up approval or thumbs up denial so the project gets modified through the process by understanding what are the impacts and how those impacts be mitigated I would say that that's been my experience with the DRB is just as an observer not as an applicant but that generally conditional uses are approved and they're only modified and I think that this council should be aware that by allowing a conditional use you are allowing this proposal to go through and the concerns of the neighbors will will be remediated to the extent that seems feasible but not necessarily really remediated in your memo you asked you presented the question that was asked by the planning commission but I didn't really see an answer to that question which is where do we allow performing arts in the district and how do we mitigate their impact in the past the answer to that was we allow it on pine street and in the past it was limited to 5,000 square feet and that 5,000 square feet limitation had a lot to do with the mitigation and the boundaries which were I'm not sure exactly what it is but but north of home avenue were also part of the mitigation of the negative impacts and some of the negative impacts would be traffic late night noise but also our long time thinking about this area is that allowing too much of these extraneous things will lead to the loss of cheap space and loss of opportunity so with that in mind how does this proposal mitigate the negative impacts I mean what was the answer to the planning commission about that and why has it changed why when the proposal went forward to try and allow arts riot in the area and these limitations were set in place why were they set in place the way they were and why have things changed now limitations for arts riot the work on that amendment predates me and trying to find some of the history of that project has been a little bit difficult but in terms of the planning commission's discussion about the specific question about where do we allow certain uses is how do we mitigate their impacts was also really tied up in the question that precedes it which is about how do we allow for flexibility and allow for protecting industrial uses while also doing no harm to other current property values and vested rights in those values the planning commission really discussed that throughout the district over the time the plan BTV South then was being created there was a lot of evolution happening in the types of uses and the types of the nature of business even in businesses that are already and currently existing within the neighborhood that we are seeing a lot of evolution and they wanted to make sure that this ordinance provided flexibility for that evolution to continue and to not do it in such a way that was so tightly constrained that it would limit any of the potential opportunity that any property owners have in an industrial district when they're already vulnerable today to being able to make the economics of being in the south end in some cases work so the question about where do we allow performing arts venues and how do we mitigate their uses that specific question the planning commission again it was wrapped up in a lot of other questions but ultimately their recommendation was that the neighborhood is really evolving in a lot of different ways and that they felt that performing arts venues could be acceptable in the entire district that was how the amendment originally came to the ordinance committee for discussion and that the way that we mitigate that impact then is by one in south of home avenue is by tying it to and creating that relationship with it supporting industrial and production type businesses and two making it a conditional use so that the DRB has the opportunity to modify projects to mitigate impacts and as to some of the history or the question as what's changed since the original ordinance was changed around these similar types of uses along pine street I think plan BTB south end was was part of that conversation and the research we did in understanding what are the principal issues issues here primarily the cost of space and the value of land makes it very difficult for any space to be affordable for rough and ready manufacturing types of uses this is an issue that's being confronted in urban places all over the country and Megan had done quite a bit of research into looking at what kinds of solutions are other communities looking at and trying in order to try to maintain some vestige of these manufacturing types of uses how do we make these spaces affordable and keep that manufacturing use so this is modeled on some of that research I think in plan BTB it actually speaks a lot to that issue but the vision is different than what's being presented here tonight one of the things that plan BTB says is that this is the jobs district and how does a performing arts center compare with other uses in terms of creating jobs I think it really depends on what the other uses are there are we can certainly think of examples of manufacturing type businesses that produce a lot of jobs that create a lot of jobs a lot of livable wage jobs but we also know that some of the uses that are currently allowed that are considered to be industrial or manufacturing are warehousing or transportation storage facilities which create very little if any jobs as a result of using the same space so I think on balance it's hard to say clearly it really depends on what the other uses might be and under the current zoning a couple of the uses that are permitted here include recording studios and TV and radio studios so again similar kind of music production and performance kind of spaces but the question is then asked as we're looking at what can we do in this space now the question is well if I could record music here could I record live music here could we bring in an audience and that's kind of part of the conversation and understanding well what's the difference there the difference is perhaps the numbers of people that you might bring in there but again it's it's part of the the creation of of that art so again keeping it subordinate to the manufacturing use in terms of the scale is part of that mitigation are we getting close Councillor Shannon yes but I want to draw the council's attention to I don't I'm not sure that everybody read plant BTV south then before they came here and I think our hat is being hung on this document for moving this forward and I don't really see this being consistent with with BTV south end so you know one of the things that seems to be misconstrued is that this area is not the arts district the arts district is on pine street and this area is not part of the arts district but if we wanted it to be part of the arts district plant BTV says as urban pioneers artist benefit from setting up shop in areas with low rents or high vacancy another part of BTV south then says our plan for the south end is about preserving an industrial area of the city because it is a destination for businesses and employees based on the type of work that they do it is about recruiting new companies to fill industrial spaces as existing companies outgrow their footprint in the south end and it's about having spaces for businesses to grow by repurposing surface parking lots and expanding building footprints I want to be clear that I'm not somebody who lacks vision or is afraid to make changes I led the changes that exist today on pine street and when I came on to this council pine street was a pretty desolate place and you rarely saw bikers and you didn't see pedestrians and cafes were not allowed and neither were dance studios or offices and I led the charge to make those changes and those changes were the things that we allowed that were not industry and not jobs related were done in support of the industry and jobs in the district that was the concept and so they were allowed with small footprints small footprints is also part of the concept in reinvigorating this area in repurposing these old buildings and what we're talking about here is not small footprints and it is also not in support of either the existing district or the existing residents this is a regional attraction by virtue of its size that we're allowing if we were to extend the 5,000 square foot size limit that we have on pine street and that previously was thought to we didn't even want 5,000 squidums 5,000 square feet of performing art space south of south of home avenue now not only we're allowing 5,000 but we're allowing up to 15,000 square feet and that is not consistent with what we envisioned there are other things there are other inconsistencies and it was pointed out by Burton that city market isn't really very consistent with this document either but city market and arts riot had broad community support there was consensus around those issues this is not the same there is this is controversial not everybody agrees on this and it may be the right thing to do in the end it may be you know I like I do like the vision of what they're trying to create but I'm very concerned about going forward with this without going through the community visioning process that we did for plan BTV south then because it's not consistent with it I'm also concerned about going through with this before we have the southern connector or the Champlain Parkway built and I'd offer three possible options if there's any interest among counselors the first is to allow 5,000 square feet of performing arts to extend into this area which is already existing on the Pine Street quarter the second is to wait and go through the re-envisioning process while the Parkway is being built and the third if you don't agree with either of the other two and you want to move this forward tonight I hope you will all commit to supporting the Champlain Parkway because this really does not work without that road going through and I'm not somebody who's a big fan of that road but this is going to be a problem without that road I will also offer that having a venue I would love to see higher ground move to Burlington but I'd really like to see it move to downtown we are going to have policing needs at higher ground and it's very hard it's at the same time that our downtown has all of its policing needs so it's not so much that higher ground is you know a terrible thing and attracting villains it's not but this type of venue has policing needs and for South Burlington they don't have their entire police force drawn to one part of town when higher ground maybe needs their help so having this disparity I think is concerning now maybe this is going to be dealt with at the DRB but I urge caution because that's not really what I've seen in the past they are low to say no to something that we allow as a conditional use thank you thank you Councillor Shannon Councillor Pine and then Councillor Roof thank you Mr President I think we we all can share a vision that Burlington is a place that welcomes innovation and entrepreneurship and rewards people for making a commitment to bringing something of value to this community I received a message as did I think everyone on the council I don't know if it's part of the public record but I just want to ask if I could through you council president to have staff address the issues which former CEDO economic development director Bruce Seifer raised which haven't been raised by any speaker but it is the question of whether changing zoning in this manner that we're talking about both the bank provision and the entertainment provision in an area that is primarily for makers spaces and enterprise the enterprise zone which envisions that most of the work activity that takes place is building and making things if changing the zoning to allow for these uses will affect over time drive up rents and values and therefore push out makers and if that is something that you discussed and if the commission considered and what are your thoughts on that because I think that's an important topic which hasn't even been raised today I'll start and Megan can certainly jump in I think that's the principal issue that we're challenged with here and that we've seen occur over time in this neighborhood is that the rents and values of these properties have risen and risen and risen it makes it very difficult for just really rough and ready space to be available for an entrepreneur starting out that needs to do something that is you know smelly and noisy and dusty a lot of that spaces is largely gone and where it exists it's very much threatened we understand that there's an evolution of manufacturing it takes many different forms and shapes and sizes so we're trying to accommodate that but the inherent concept that we're trying to put forward here where we allow for some uses that do meet that market need and can help generate more rental income to work alongside of that more affordable space is is really what we're hoping for because you know the cat's out of the bag when it comes to office space and some of the other kinds of uses that have occurred down there and and are leading to driving up those rents I think that that was what I was going to say also is that in many ways we've started to make changes to the zoning for the south end that has allowed for some of this evolution to occur already today any one of the facilities on industrial parkway could be converted to you know 100% office space and you know some of them largely function as office space in support of industrial uses which would fundamentally alter the intent of these spaces as maker spaces you know in the traditional sense that we think of it as so we really tried to recognize the evolving nature of what making means with a couple of the adjustments to the definitions here and then really instituting that protection that limit on how much of the space can be used for things that aren't related to making was really essential that's a protection that doesn't exist in the ordinance today and in the research and looking at other communities that are struggling with this whether it's just having a lot of vacant industrial space or whether it's having the cost of space rise so much that it's pushing out the makers they many communities are trying an approach like this let's be a little bit more flexible so that these things can coexist in a controlled way instead of pushing one another around and ultimately out I think that was going to be my conclusion what Megan Tuttle just said she took it from me but it's a notion that in fact I think the innovation that is in front of us today is that in order to keep the makers that are there and that are viable viable we may need to be flexible in the way we think about land use and I think that's what we're trying to grapple with tonight and I just would say that I hope the council will look to the innovators and the folks who are bringing these ideas forward and have a little bit of faith in that entrepreneurial spirit that has served us well and hopefully will continue to serve us well and I think this strikes a pretty decent balance Thank you Councillor Pine Councillor Roof Thank you President Wright just some comments here that I put together I won't go on too long but as it was mentioned I served on the the ordinance committee who saw this a few weeks ago and I voted in favor of it then and I'll be supporting of the zoning changes again tonight I want to start by highlighting again that what's in front of us is what's in front of us tonight has been well vetted by state staff as well as the Planning Commission who voted unanimously in favor of this coming forward there were also additional review and compromises made at the committee level as Councillor Busher laid out most notably the performing arc spaces allowed in this area will be limited to no more than 15,000 square feet which is a drastic reduction in what otherwise would have been allowed while working through this issue I was like Councillor Busher also commented able to attend a tour of the vacant Burton facilities and it was really highlighting coming from Ward 8 where there's not a lot of vacant space floating around it was sort of it was interesting being and still on city limits with so much vacant open space and facility space I also had no idea that Burton employees 400 employees I thought it was much smaller than that for whatever reason and it was also good to learn that this project if it goes forward will bring another 60 or so jobs to Burlington so while this conversation obviously involves Burton and its future viability here in Burlington we do need to remember again like Councillor Busher noted great job Councillor Busher noting all of my points we should remember that our vote tonight is not about Burton and that it does not guarantee that higher ground will have the right to move into new space at the Burton campus tomorrow as we've discussed the Burton project will need to undergo a conditional permitting process which is extensive and will include a range of neighborhood impact studies and reviews looking at the things that folks are legitimately concerned about the traffic and noise in parking related issues it's also important to note that the planning that planning documents are used to inform this process to guide zoning conversations and plan BTV which has been mentioned also has been talked about and was used by the planning commission to make their decision and their recommendation while we can obviously cherry pick a big big documents to make one points or another I'm going to do that so just being open with you here planning the plan BTV also does talk about being responsive to an evolving economy because whether we like it or not the manufacturing in Burlington on the south end is not coming back in the way that it existed in decades past so long story short on that is manufacturing in Burlington is not coming back and we need zoning that is responsive to the realities of our future and we need to be bold and moving away from decisions based on the fear of unlikely worst case scenarios to close I'll just add that and listening to counselors Shannon Pine mentioned maker spaces I think this is a personal thing here that making music is one of the most valuable and unifying things that we as humans create and so I'm excited for that maker space if this all goes forward to join our to come back to Burlington in many ways so thanks everyone who came with tonight who made calls and emails to city counselors and thank you also to staff like I said I will be supporting this into counselor Shannon I do support that third option in committing to support the Champlain Parkway so you got me on that one thank you counselor Roof and I just want to note on counselor Shannon's behalf because of her passion for her award and her district always that she did attend she did take the tour that the other counselors did but she took it not with the committee thank you counselor Shannon any other counselor who wants to speak about this counselor Busher I just wanted to state that for those of you who are very concerned about the conditional use process you know you talked about police and you talked about cars and you know there are things that you could propose while you're waiting for the Parkway you could propose asking for extra security you could also propose asking about satellite parking I think there are things so people should put their collective heads together if indeed higher ground comes and you go before the DRB I'd be more than happy to give you some of the tools of that I've tried before the DRB to make a project more compatible with the neighborhood so anyways I just wanted to offer that for those of you concerned thank you counselor Shannon no counselor Busher counselor Busher yes how could I forget that counselor Hanson thank you yeah I would just say just to piggyback off of counselor Busher's points there I was able to take the tour along with counselor Paulino and was really impressed by what they're envisioning and what they're planning in that space and one of the one of the issues we discussed was obviously around traffic which has come up a lot tonight for those who haven't been over there it's right next to the Green Mountain Transit headquarters which presents an opportunity that we had the chance to discuss with Burton to partner with GMT to provide robust bus service as part of this project and not something that I would strongly advocate for and hope that others will as part of the review process so I'm hoping we can see this as an opportunity to find ways for folks to sustainably get to and from shows and also alleviate traffic concerns through a partnership with GMT thanks Thank you Counselor Hansen Counselor Tracy passes Are we ready to vote? Looks like we are All those in favor of this please raise your hands and Counselor Paul has voted aye those opposed is Counselor Shin so the vote is President Wright excuse me because you have someone yep we have that's right clerk please call the roll Sir Bushard Yes Yes Counselor Chang Yes Counselor Paulino Yes Counselor Greven Yes Counselor Paul Yes Counselor Pine Yes Counselor Ruth Yes Counselor Shannon No Counselor Tracy Yes City Council President Wright Yes Ten ayes one nay and one recusal That passes by a vote of 10 to 1 and we will now move on to item 5.04 is Counselor Mason He's still recused He's recused Okay So you're going to move this Okay Counselor Bushard is recognized on 5.04 So I'm going to move to waive the second reading and adopt the ordinance and after a second I'd like the floor back Seconded by Counselor Ruth Counselor Bushard You have the floor back Thank you This The ordinance came to us as a whole with performing arts and banks but there was a concern by the committee that we would take a long time to resolve the performing arts and there was some urgency for banks so the request from the committee was to divide the question and so therefore you have the ordinance in two parts so this part only deals with banks and it's pretty straightforward it's banks and drive-throughs are not permitted there's a use table I don't feel I really need to expand any more than that pretty much everyone was in support of this with one exception that was Bruce Seifer who sent an email a very lengthy email regarding all of his concerns around this district and he felt that banks should really remain in the downtown and not spread out to the south end but this is a branch and banks as I've learned are not what they used to be they're small and aren't what we think of the big banks downtown so thank you very much Thank you Counselor Bushard anyone else hearing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed that passed unanimously so we will not need a roll call so that completes that item and we are now on to the budget starting with item 5.05 at 1003 Counselor Paul are you Thank you President Wright I'd like to have Rosemarie for Rosemarie the reason we asked for a second and then I'd like to floor back after the second Seconded by Counselor Bushard Counselor Paul you have the floor back Thank you very much and thank you for very wisdom as I have to be out of town this evening I've been certainly a counsel meeting that I didn't want to miss because I think arguably one of the most important functions that the council has all year on is the annual approval of the mayor's recommended budget the budget sets the tone for the upcoming fiscal year it establishes priorities and allocates funds for departments for valued community initiatives and it includes some exciting and innovative pilot projects that will move our city forward for the benefit of people that might be watching on channel 17 with us this evening the budget is really a true reflection of a great deal of hard work on the part of not only the administration but our dedicated CAO and her staff the city council the board of finance and especially the voters the budget like prior budgets in years past is a collaborative effort and for the benefit of those who might not have attended our meetings of the board of finance the board of finance along with other counselors who wish to participate had four budget presentations where department has and other staff presented their individual budgets and we have been working with the administration on the budget for several months now and all of those meetings have been open to the public and people have attended them the mayor has listened to both the concerns that counselors have shown and as well he has listened to counselors who have advocated to see things included in the budget I would concur with our former CAO who said that effective budget have to be fair, factual and forward and I believe this budget is factual in that it is an exercise and open discussion for many questions were asked and we began this process as I said much earlier in the year to collaboratively work to find solutions to minimize a possible tax increase and still despite being given the authority for a tax increase which was a factual assessment of our needs the fact was that subsequent to that vote we had the BT settlement and while decisions have not been made on the BT settlement funds that clearly belong to the community and could be spent in a way that benefits our community are those funds from the BT settlement I think the budget is factual in that as a council and as a community we haven't had a full discussion on the use and investment of the BT funds and it would only be fair to have that discussion before we commit those funds the Board of Finance was unanimous in that position and that decision will be made this summer this budget as I said does not include any expenditures linked to the BT settlement all budgets have to be forward-thinking that's really what a budget is and this budget does include funding that is extremely forward-thinking the early learning initiative first steps scholarship program that will award 20 or more families a one-year scholarship for enrollment in child care on community initiatives such as the housing trust fund funding for the low barrier shelter and continued historic investments in our infrastructure and I think there is no one at this table who isn't particularly excited about the inclusion in the budget that increases funding for the neighborhood planning assemblies going from $3200 a year to $20,000 which is what the MPAs had asked for and the administration has that in this budget which is a forward-thinking allocation so that the MPAs can plan more community events and fund more neighborhood projects lastly I would just like to add that our ability to fund community initiatives pilot programs and address critical community needs for many of our most vulnerable would not be possible without a mindful eye on our fiscal stability and resiliency and a strong credit rating a strong credit rating means that we have a lower cost of capital and that savings in part is what makes it possible for us to do what is important for our community that is something that the administration, the council past and present and the community and the voters have all endorsed thank you for listening I hope that this council will unanimously approve the budget before us thank you thank you thank you councilor paul any other councilor on this councilor tracy one thing that I would just specifically like to to comment on within the budget that I'm very appreciative of is that mpa funds this was something that was discussed for a long time in our mpa an mpa that has been burgeoning of late just last week we were you know having to find different places to save people people are going to sit all in all different places to eat dinner the community dinner and we have all kinds of really cool stuff happening there with music and a crank show where they have like a live action show people come together cook meals if you haven't been to our mpa it's phenomenal it is the best of burlington and I think it really needs additional support in terms of financial resources it felt a little silly honestly to me at the end of that meeting to be discussing a couple hundred dollars for something that is so vital you know I think that if I if we have just a you know the resources that are contemplated in this budget which again we're what was asked and I think it's important to really recognize the responsiveness there that we can do a lot more and so I'm really excited about the possibilities that are presented by that whether it's some suggestions that we've heard in the past for child care you know more support for the food different kinds of just different kinds of facilitation all kinds of things that come become possible by that additional funding so I'm very much appreciative of that because I think it's one of the great sort of examples of direct democracy in our city and I I look forward to hopefully you know should this budget pass seeing what that can do and seeing what our our creative and and really passionate mpa members do with it thank you thank you councillor mason councillor hansett is that thank you oh councillor tracy sorry councillor hansett no you have you have the floor councillor great thank you I I I definitely appreciate a lot of the the direction in the budget and where it's attempting to go and with definitely second councillor tracy's points there for me as a as a new councillor and learning the process and wrapping my head around this this document as we grapple with other issues as well I I have a number of questions that have arisen more recently and and and looking forward to getting some clarity on them but for for me to feel comfortable I would really benefit a lot from having an additional week to review a lot of these questions and and get some answers and I know we do have the opportunity to to do that as we have one more meeting before before the deadline so for me that would be really critical and I would move to to push it back to be able to take some additional time to really make sure that we're comfortable with all of these items and that we're able to get our questions answered councillor Hanson that I just understand that you made the motion to I the passage of the budget for one week I would yeah I would like to postpone until next meeting councillor Hanson has proposed postponement of this until the next meeting is there a second to that oh wait a minute nope that's not a question you get to ask right now is there a second to this councillor Perry councillor Freeman second to that who wants to get in the queue now no no no no councillor Jang you can raise your hand and get recognized okay councillor Jang now the microphone and then you can ask through me thank you Mr. President thank you and Mr. President I would like to know why councillor Hanlon would like to delay the word of the budget tonight why he wants to delay yes well I'll let councillor Hanson speak for himself but I think he made clear that he felt like he has a number of questions that are unanswered and he would like the extra week to try to get the questions answered is that correct councillor Hanson would you like to add to that yeah that's that's correct yeah okay anybody anyone else any but any other questions or comments can can I add councillor Hanson I would just say I mean part of this is as I alluded to has to do with being new to the council and still learning the role and understanding the process around the budget so I understand that others may have been may have had all of their questions answered and may have you know been more familiar with the process and been able to get all their questions in in time and get proper responses that's not something I was able to do and I've submitted all my questions but haven't gotten answers yet back and would like some additional time to do that so it partly has to do with you know having less familiarity or with the process in terms of why I ended up in this position but that's why I would request it from other councillors in part thank you councillor Hanson councillor Pike yes Mr. President I'd just like to ask if through you I could ask the mayor if there's a problem or an issue raised by this delay Mr. Mayor can you respond to that yeah I'd be happy to so let me start by saying you know I'm sympathetic to councillor Cerny to the process and email work that is involved in fully reviewing this you know substantial document and so I guess I would just I would say a couple things we tried to anticipate this I think you know is it is it a problem to delay I would say this you know we have only one more meeting scheduled in the month and it would that's concerned me we've in my seven years I don't think ever gone to the last meeting of the month before making a vote and so I would like I guess I'm not categorically against a delay tonight but I'd like some additional discussion tonight to know whether there are concerns that might become a problem if we were to delay again um I do want to point out that we have tried to be very responsive throughout this process I think it's important to clarify that questions that Councillor Hanson is referring to being not answered yet were ones that we just received in the middle of the board of finance tonight I've looked through those questions and responded to a couple of them while we've been sitting here we're also trying to be part of the business of tonight I guess one question President Wright that I would have and maybe that would be pertinent is whether any of the questions Councillor Hanson has clearly now you know done a thorough job of going through the budget and they have many detailed questions most of them are of small budget amounts and I'm one thing that maybe Councillor Hanson can reflect on and we might have discussion about it if there's really anything of those I've tried to answer the larger ones I'm not clear that any of those should rise to the level that would actually cause one to vote against this critical document and everything that is in it and I have committed on behalf of the administration to get Councillor Hanson for his sort of future purposes answers to the long list of questions that he has submitted tonight we did the reason that we have for budget meetings in May and the budget is largely unchanged in large part unchanged since those the budgets were presented there is to avoid last minute questions coming up this year I think we did maybe our best job yet at least certainly the Board of Finance was supportive of the job that we did engaging the Board of Finance earlier on in some of the major kind of directional questions about the budget and that was well received so um it does cause me some nervousness and concern to to not use tonight's opportunity to finish this it certainly is some weight on the on the team that will continue for the next week if we aren't able to get it done tonight that said I respect that the way the system works is you know formerly the Council has only had this for a short period of time and if there's a reason to delay tonight I respect that thank you Mr. Mayor um Councilor Busher so President Wright I need to find out is um if you would just query Councilor Hanson if he feels that all of the budget resolutions need to wait or whether he feels some could could be acted on tonight I'm not clear because some of them really are not boiler plate but they're pretty uniform and traditional with actual barring that isn't linked to anything specific in our budget so I just wasn't clear whether we could act on some of them or not I think it's unusual that we don't act on them all the same nay City Attorney Blackwood did you want to say something about that I mean it's probably not impossible to do but I don't remember having done it before I think we think you could probably do the finite if you're going to separate them if you're if you're not going to do them all tonight you could probably do the financing and bonding ones but probably not pieces of the budget ones okay Council Hanson did you have anything further to add to that well yeah I would just say first of all I appreciate the the mayor's office for for being willing to to meet it on this and kind of go through some of the issues they were mostly smaller issues and I would say this connects somewhat to the resolution that that a few of us are bringing forward later tonight but just about support for new counselors and you know we were able to have an orientation at the beginning which was very helpful but just the nature of the role and the fact that there's no fun up until now I mean hopefully we change this tonight but there's no funds available support funds for for new counselors so it can be difficult to catch everything and so that's kind of where this is coming from and just I think I would make really strong use of of that additional week personally I don't know if other of the the newly elected counselors want to speak to this at all but for me personally it would be very valuable to have some additional time to be able to to dig into that but it isn't a dig on the process it's more a reflection of the nature of of being a new counselor okay in the way it's set up got it got your answer counselor mason and I really would like to move towards a conclusion on this so that we don't my question is to you president right while I respect you know this is six resolutions I don't know what our agenda next week looks like so you know if you were able to forecast that we have a light agenda I would be more inclined to support this than if you said you know you're anticipating a full agenda while respecting you know the request for the delay we've all been under the same you know time frame in terms of turning this around and I'm I'm a little less sympathetic if this means we have a six hour meeting next week instead of taking it up now I cannot fully answer that the mayor and I meet at some point to we have not done that about the next meeting so I'm not fully aware of everything that might be on the agenda Councilor Busher so President Wright Mr. Mayor I would like Mr. Mayor to listen to what I'm going to ask you to ask him or may I ask the mayor a question you go ahead and ask the mayor a question Mr. Mayor could I ask you a question regarding the budget process so I'm hearing that a counselor has some concerns about potentially a request that would impact a the budget in a small way and could you speak to your ability to entertain a budget amendment that would still allow us to move forward tonight and yet potentially address his concerns I'm not trying to tie your hands Mr. Mayor sorry you have the floor Mr. Mayor okay thank you for sorry so a couple questions on the floor one is about the agenda next week the commission appointments are next week is I think our major item of work and then there's a number of liquor control issues there I think that is the bulk of the agenda that we're clear on at this point with respect to a budget amendment it's interesting suggestion counselor busher certainly I think it's if this to you I'm not certain this is your point there is a process by which errors or oversights or unanticipated items can be corrected in the future the budget is is not locked completely in stone and there there are over the course of the year occasionally adjustments to that so we're something to arise from the answers the questions they've risen in the future there would be some opportunity to act on that in the future even if we were to to act tonight is that the I don't having looked at the list of questions I don't have an immediate answer and it's a fairly long list of detailed questions from counselor Hanson I don't have like a specific budget amended to project or way to structure that any better other than to say that is our process this is not locked in the stone it is a document that can be amended in the future if needed thank you is that the just to your question counselor busher of that if we vote on this tonight and counselor Hanson spends the next week getting the answers to his questions that he could come back with an amendment if based on the answers he got so my understanding from counselor Hanson president Wright was that the resolution that deals with funding for newly elected counselors is one of his budgetary concerns that's what he really identified and so if that was the thing that was delaying the passage then I was looking at options I don't think that no I don't think that is he has a he has many questions that he has listed so it's not that he has and there's a resolution about that issue later that won't deal with that now but we we counselor Shannon we really need to move forward here fairly soon on this thank you I think we've all been new counselors and we've all been in counselor Hanson's position and we have worked with our fellow counselors with our staff to bring questions forward in advance and we do have many resources available to us whether or not we we have council funds I'm concerned because at our next meeting I know in addition to what the mayor just mentioned I believe that there's a UVM housing resolution coming forward I believe that counselor Jang is bringing forward his diversity inclusion resolution and I'm sure there are many other things that haven't been mentioned and the budget resolutions are important to kind of spring this to us spring this on us at the on the council floor I'm I'm a little shocked I've been here for a while I've never seen this before if you didn't want or weren't prepared to vote on the budget I don't really know how you just came to that realization right now here on the floor thank you councillor shannon we I'm going to allow another comment and we really need to go forward so councillor hanson another quick comment and then councillor painett if you need to otherwise we need to move on yeah I would I would just say in response to that I certainly am prepared to vote on the budget that's not what I'm what I was saying but what I was saying is that I would benefit from the ability to dig deeper into some of the questions that aren't answered but I am prepared to vote on the budget of course if if need be councillor painett just to let the president and the councillors know and the mayor know it was actually customary for the entire tenure bernie sanders as mayor and peter covella's mayor that the budget would get approved at the last possible meeting because the council really pushed back on them pretty pretty regularly so no that's not the case that this is unprecedented thank you councillor painett are we ready to vote we have a motion on the floor to postpone action until the next meeting we need a roll call so the clerk's office please call the roll councillor pushard no and actually I'm going to councillors I've had a member of the public actually at last meeting tell me they couldn't hear people's votes so could everyone please use your microphone I know you did I'm asking everyone to yes yes yes yes House or shandon no or tracy yes no the motion fails on a tie vote we are back to the motion is there anyone else on the motion hearing none mr. mayor this is the underlying motion on the budget yes okay um so let me just say very briefly I think it's a lot to be proud of in this budget thank you everyone who has worked to get us to this point I want to particularly thank Beth Anderson everyone in her clerk treasure shop for the incredible amount of diligent and ongoing work that requires to get to this point and and doing that work earlier than I I think we have achieved in the past I want to thank the Board of Finance for their engagement throughout this process and again we can commit to debriefing with you after this and seeing how we can continue to improve this process but I appreciate the feedback after last year that led to the improvements this year you know to name the thing I think I am proud of that this budget does I know that our is getting late and there's more to do I do think the work that we are doing together with the infrastructure is going to have a long term positive impact on this community and I think what may be most normal about this budget is not only does it continue to sustainable infrastructure plan for the fourth year of funding we add to that the clean water resiliency investments that begin this year we add to that the major investments at the airport and the Champlain Parkway I think it's likely that the capital investment that takes place in fiscal year 2020 will exceed any prior year in terms of total public infrastructure investment and that's exciting and then finally you know I hate to to what have this moment which has often been a time of consensus marred by the kind of debate we just had I want to be clear I think what I just heard is that Councillor Hanson is prepared to vote tonight I welcome that and I am committed to getting him the answers and having the engagement going forward from here to make sure that he fully feels like as a first counselor that is working as hard as he is that he is given all the information in very short order to fully understand the questions he still has about the budget I'm committed to doing that we will work hard to do that quickly thank you Mr. Mayor we're ready for the vote all those in favor please raise your hands or if and Councillor Paul says aye any opposed we need a roll call clerk's office call the roll please Councillor Bushour yes yes yes Councillor Freeman no yes yeah yes Councillor Roof yes Councillor Shannon yes yes yes City Council President Wright yes that passes 11 to 1 and we are on to item 5.06 the next oh yes excuse me Councillor Mason for a rule suspension thank you President Wright it's 1032 I would like to make a motion to suspend the rules for us to take up the following items 5.05 resolution annual appropriation and budget for fiscal year beginning July 1, 2019 5.06 annual appropriation of budget for innovation and technology 5.07 annual tax assessments 5.08 investment of unassigned fund buy-in balance 5.09 authorization for public improvement funds for fiscal year 2020 5.10 of approving the issuance of grant anticipation notes for cost of certain airport improvement projects 5.11 approving the issuance of grant anticipation notes 5.12 I do not believe is time sensitive so I postpone that till next week 5.13 report from the police department and finally 5.14 which is time sensitive and that's it thank you council 5.13 and 14 yes councilor mason has moved a suspension of rules with the items that he has mentioned is there a second second in place of no no second councilor shannon second by councilor busher discussion councilor shannon did is it debate hold one minute city attorney can you remind me if this is the motion to suspend rules that's on the floor is debatable I believe it is it's debatable councilor shannon says never mind anyone else okay we are ready to vote I'm the was this the uvm was that part of the motion yes it was yes that was 5.14 which is on the list of those to be discussed okay we're ready to vote all those in favor of the motion to spend rules with the items specifically mentioned by councilor mason please say aye any opposed passes unanimously and we are on to item 5.06 councilor paul thank you president right so I'd like to move the resolution with the reading asked for a second in the floor mark after a second 340 second by councilor roof councilor paul you have the floor point of order point of order I'm not I'm not seconding I'm looking to get into recuse myself councilor roof is recusing yourself recuse myself through a professional conflict all right councilor roof has recused himself and councilor busher seconds the motion now councillor paul you have the floor back great okay so well according to my councillor word short I put the word right out of my mouth I just wanted to explain to the public that we're voting on the innovation and technology department budget separately due to a councillor's professional role in the community in a professional conflict of interest just for the benefit of the public we have done this in the past with other councillors when there have been such conflicts and hope the council can unanimously support this budget thank you councillor paul discussion on the motion hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye all right and can we do that again all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed that passes unanimously item 5.07 councillor paul thanks um I'll move the resolution wait the reading after a second at the floor back after a second break please seconded by councillor busher you have the floor back councillor paul thank you very much President Ray so this this resolution is just simply need to be captured for the F-120 calendar here fiscal year that is the rate in total is 87.14 cents per hundred dollars of assess value on each property in the city and I won't list all of the individual taxes there are 14 of them just wanted to mention that there was a revised resolution that we have on board docs the changes are extremely small difference of a couple hundreds and a thousandth of a cent one is a small difference in the funding for green mount transit a very slight decrease in our county tax and an increase in our retirement due to what I would say is a very responsible decision to reduce our assume rate of return to a more realistic rate and then a slight increase in our debt service due to the sustainable infrastructure plan there's a lot of other information in there I won't go into all of it it's short just that we're funding our obligations and providing for our present and for our future hope that everyone can support that thank you councillor thank you councillor paul any dis any comments or questions on the annual tax assessment councillor jane I would need some clarification on this one a little bit is this specific to increasing taxes like that the property owners and businesses living in birdington you know would be having in 2020 like next year is that okay Mr. Mayor do you want to respond to that so yes I believe that this is the vote that formally sets the tax rate of course the mechanism by which we get to the tax rate the property tax rate is made up of numerous different lines budget tax lines I think there's a total of approximately a dozen of them and they're sort of a different story and a different level of formulation and calculation for each of them but yes this is about the property taxes and establishes the final property tax bills for the FY20 if there are more detailed questions then I'd be happy to try it first thank you Mr. Mayor is that satisfied you Councillor Chang yeah I have more questions and based on my understanding we did sell BT and I think the mayor did publicly made a statement that due to the revenues we received over from BT sell you won't be increasing any taxes I mean I think yeah President Wright you'd like to yes Mr. Mayor can respond although then we're not going to just continue I mean then you need to put out whatever question you have all at once so you can get it all rather than go back and forth and yeah this question also is not only for the mayor but also members of the Board of Finance and CFO as well yeah thank you Councillor Chang so and so the statement I made in the state of the city was that I even though the voters approximately a month before that had voted to increase the taxes on themselves by a fairly strong vote my memories is you know approaching 60 percent of the voters that supported that one and a half percent tax increase on the city's general tax rate at the time we said we would only utilize those funds that additional authority if needed and I came back and did say that I would be presenting a budget because of the BT settlement that did not not implement that tax increase so I want to be clear about that the tax increase that had just been voted on it was not a broad statement that there would be no tax increases because again there are different elements of the tax bill that are driven by different things but we are not implementing the tax increase that was voted on by the voters this past year in the end I took the wisdom of the members of the Board of Finance who were not ready to appropriate BT funds to achieve that to achieve that tax by now and essentially we are using other resources in the unassigned fund balance to cover that approximately 450,000 we also do plan and this isn't my memo to you that we will at the July 15th meeting have an extensive extended conversation really starting the process by which we we come to decisions by next March a year anniversary of the BT closing date as to whether or not we are going to invest some portion of those funds or potentially all of those funds in the new Burlington telecom so look from you know we had a good discussion of the Board of Finance tonight about that July session I won't say more about that now but the Board of Finance has requested more information for that July session we will be working hard on that and that's one of the reasons I appreciate being able to move past the budget and start moving on working on other matters thank you Mr. Mayor yeah I would like to make a motion you want to make a motion yeah all right go ahead delay this this resolution until next week it's a very simple one I just have a couple detailed questions to understand it better specifically with the Mayor and also the Chief the CFO all right Councillor Jang has moved to delay postpone action on this until the next meeting is there a second to this motion seconded by Councillor Hanson discussion Councillor Shannon just want to say that you know Councillor Pine had said that there was precedent for this kind of thing and I think that that's true at that time but since that time we actually have had we've really opened up the Board of Finance discussions to the full council so that people can get their questions answered in advance of this coming forward and I don't really understand why councillors are not taking advantage of that and not coming prepared to vote and not asking their questions in advance of coming to the table tonight because things are not the same now that they were under Bernie or Peter Clavel or Mayor Kess thank you thank you Councillor Shannon other further discussion on the right on the motion hearing none the clerk shall call the roll answer for short yes no answer for no Councillor Shannon no yes did he council president right no the motion fails by a vote of eight to four we are back to the motion all those anyone further discussion or are we ready to vote any raise your hands if you're in favor of this please we need a roll call roll call please no yes yes yes yes yes yes the tax assessments on the property grant list passes by a vote of 11 to 1 that moves us on to item 5.08 a resolution regarding investment of the unassigned fund balance to improve city services Councillor Buscher so I'll move to waive the reading and adopt the resolution and after a second I'd like the floor back seconded by Councillor Mason you have the floor Councillor Buscher so this resolution deals with a fund balance policy that we adopted in 2015 and we had a target balance of 10% but we also had a cap if it exceeded 15% then we were to appropriate any of that unassigned fund balance and so as of as it says here as of fiscal year ending June 30th 2018 it was equal to 16.4% and so this resolution deals with how we appropriated some of that unassigned fund balance as the mayor stated and as Councillor Colle stated some of this money was already used in the budget that we just adopted but this deals with some of the monies that was carried forward for that was previously allocated that was not spent $25,000 to complete the jobs and people's report for CEDA which is really important $80,000 I know Council Hanson's ears will spark up will perk up for district energy system $500,000 towards reappraisal and then $45,000 for capital project accounting practices that's the older money now with the new money we the mayor has decided to spend $568,000 for the repair of sidewalks $475,000 to do additional paving this is to bring us up to the same level that we've been doing the past couple of years which is extended sidewalk work and paving and we've actually made some progress in this regard now we're putting these dollars in place $100,000 to hire a consultant to evaluate the opportunity to modify the existing street franchise fee ordinance which Councilor Pine had mentioned and the mayor jumped on that and then $150,000 thank goodness to digitized zoning files and property records so we're going to the current age here having said this having spent these dollars if we pass this resolution we will still have an unassigned fund balance of 13.6% which is healthy and I wanted to make sure that we still have that in case we needed some other emergencies or in case we had other needs to spend some of this down we don't want to just keep people's tax dollars but we do need to have that in case of emergency so thank you very much thank you Councilor Busher questions Councilor Jane thank you Councilor Busher but can you put into perspective into Dalla Amman what are those 13.6% in Dalla Amman how much money are you talking about? Councilor Busher the mayor might be able to say it right off we'll look to the administration to answer that it's approximately no more projecting after committing the investments which and there's a good handout and material that I think is a very exciting list of investments including yes responding to some of the to some of the discussions and ensuring as Councilor Busher said that we keep the road and sidewalk investments at the levels the historically high levels we've had the last few years we would have approximately 8.2 million remaining in the unassigned fund balance versus and that puts us as Councilor Busher said healthily above the 10% threshold which would be about 6 million so a couple million more than 2 million dollars in excess of that target thank you Mr. Mayor thank you thank you Councilor Chang any other comments or questions discussion hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed that one passes unanimously item 5.10 resolution proving the issuance 5.09 resolution authorization for public improvement bonds for fiscal year 2020 Councilor Busher waive the reading and adopt the resolution seconded by Councilor Roof Councilor Busher you have the floor back if you choose to have the floor back you can ask for it just make a brief statement President right this is something we do on an annual basis and it allows us to borrow if we need to have this money available the city has 2 million the Board of Electoral Commissioners if they ask us to will the city will pledge an amount of 3 million and the schools ask for 2 million and the monies are used to accommodate working capital of capital improvements and any other needs during that time what happens is that if we need to draw down on it we do it's short term borrowing and then there is the opportunity when we when we once we have these dollars if we borrow and borrow them then Rich or Beth the CAO or the CFO look to take advantage of good interest rates and sometimes we consolidate those so that overall we are paying less interest on this borrowing that's it thank you thank you Councillor Bushert discussion on the motion hearing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed that passes unanimously now Councillor Bushert 5.10 yes I'll move to waive the reading and adopt the resolution moved by Councillor Bushert seconded by Councillor Powell okay Councillor Powell did I hear a second from you you did thank you Councillor Bushert you go to the floor back thank you president right this is borrowing in anticipation of getting grants from the FAA so that we are doing a short-term loan in anticipation of grants it's straightforward and that's it I'm not going to sway any more thank you thank you Councillor Bushert discussion on the motion hearing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed passes unanimously item 5.11 Councillor Bushert resolution approving the issuance of grant anticipation notes for certain costs of Champlain Parkway after resolution moved by Councillor Bushert seconded by Councillor Shannon Councillor Bushert once again this is short-term borrowing what once again in anticipation of getting money from the FHA and the AOT the amount that would get in grants would be around eight million dollars the request is to authorize to borrow up to seven million dollars in anticipation of these funds becoming available thank you thank you Councillor Bushert discussion on the motion hearing none all those in favor please say aye any opposed no we need a roll call shall call the roll Councillor Bushert yes Councillor Hanson yes yes yes yes Councillor Shannon yes Councillor Tracy no City Council President Wright yes 5.11 Champlain Parkway passes by a vote of 10 to 2 item 5.12 is a resolution amendment to appendix B no excuse me that one has not been included in this it is 5.13 and that is a resolution from Councillor Polino Councillor Polino thank you President Wright I move to introduce the resolution requesting a report on expanding social worker support to the Browns Police Department I will submit good point point of order point of information point of information from Councillor Hanson why why did we skip item 5.12 because 5.13 you said 5.12 5.12 is not included in Councillor Mason's motion to suspend rules on he did not include that as time sensitive so that has been voted on it was approved unanimously for the items that Councillor Mason mentioned so that will be carried over to next week Councillor Polino you have a motion you made on the floor and you're after a second I ask for the floor back and we need a second Councillor Pine seconds Councillor Polino you have the floor back so the goal of this resolution is to strengthen our mental health response here in Burlington since becoming city councillor I began exploring how the city can supplement our response to those dealing with mental health issues as a prosecutor every day I see the effects of criminal justice system grappling a deal with mental health issues and the collateral consequence that they bring additionally in recent years as in the state's attorney's office we started working with mental health and substance abuse professionals were embedded in our courthouse and we see them at work every day I began to see the differences in how a professional in this field can communicate and reach people in ways that no prosecutor or judge can over time these professionals help us curb reoccurring behavior and provide further access to treatment and services that may otherwise not have been sought despite my experience I began this journey by speaking with those tasks with meeting our community's needs and quickly learned about the challenges in expanding a mental health support program and finding a reliable funding source I also learned that there seemed to be universal support and adding additional support to the community in addressing mental health issues this resolution calls for the Burlington police department to conduct a report with recommendations on how the city can best provide additional social worker support in the community it calls for the department to explore the option of expanding its own staff as well as contracting with a third party agency the goal is for the department to look at their calls for service which are easily accessible related to mental health and also give the chief of police enough flexibility to explore how to best use more social worker support we also want to expand the great work that Jackie Corbally the chief and the mayor has been doing in the area of opioid and substance abuse since 2016 this resolution was crafted in direct response to the june 3rd meeting where we formed a special committee to look at other areas of policing which include the citizen complaint response use of force training and incident response the goal is not to overshadow that committee's work but to provide a faster and alternative response to the community this resolution should provide the community with answers on how we can better respond to calls for service but also how we can further enhance department's contact with the community in this area by being both proactive and reactive I'll set Councillor Polino we're finished okay discussion from the floor Councillor mason, thank you president right. I have a point of order Point Councillor mason, what's your point of order? It is my understanding you know One of our standing council rules is that we not take up an item that we recently voted on and as I've looked at this I see sort of two elements to admit of this both of which touch upon from my perspective and I looked at the city attorney and the chair for guidance on this but um One piece speaks to you know, basically asking for a report as to whether we should expand social work either through direct hires or outside service that was directly You know resolution that we voted on brought forth by councillor Friedman and Hanson last week second piece briefly touches on the officer wellness initiative which again was part of a separate resolution that we voted on from councillor Roof and asked a committee to look into that issue so um my point of order is whether this is timely or appropriate for us to take up at this time City Attorney Blackwood, can you shed some light on that? Yes, you do you do have a rule that once you have acted on a matter you can't react on it again I believe it is the chair's prerogative to Determine whether or not this is the same Action or within the same field of the idea that you were acting on and that you voted down Last time we voted for one one resolution went down one one was our one was voted on So point of information, what rules that? Hold on Councillor Polino is asking for a point of information Councillor Polino. What is your point of information? What rule refers to matters that weren't previously That have been previously addressed and and point of order the resolution just to respond on that issue I have it in front of me does not mention mental health or substance So I asked for the roberts rule regarding previously considered issues and being unable to debate them I don't have the rule number Right in front of me. I think the ball's in your court. Mr. Chair. Well, we're The city attorney responded that she did not know the none of the rule off the top of her head It's you know, look, I can't point to the specific rule either Right. Councillor Freeman. Are you asking for a point of order or a point of information point of information? What's your point of information? I just wanted like as well clarity on the roberts rule and If the is there a specific timeframe within that is it Is it really just up to I just wanted a point of information Veterinary black with this is discretionary to The council president is that correct? No, no, sorry to be clear You there generally what roberts rule says is that within that once a council has acted on a matter once a body Public body has acted on a matter. They can't in the same session Act on it again Without going through there are certain limited exceptions. So one is there are some grounds upon Anyway, there's there I think four roughly exceptions for times when you can none of which apply in the situation First and then Secondly what the issue is whether or not This particular motion is Indeed a matter that you have acted on before That question it seems to me is a close question in this case and therefore I would say that the chair make makes that decision as opposed to my making that decision The chair makes the decision whether or not this is a matter that was acted on already by the council So City attorney has given her legal advice on this and has thrown the question To me Is the purview of the council president to decide whether The point of order is a valid point of order in regard to And as I looked at there are two issues Both dealing with the resolution that was defeated In which I think a case could be made that one section was defeated in regard to Social workers And I think on the flip side a case could be made that On the roof resolution the roof resolution from last week asked a special committee to look at officer wellness initiatives And councillor polino has now asked the roll into police department to review and recommend regarding mental health services to police officers And their families and I do see a conflict there So I see two potential conflicts On both sides of that and so I am going to rule that the resolution is I'm going to find councillor mace's point of order To be well taken and that's the resolution president point of order. I will move to strike references to the I'm sorry councillor polino. I have I have made a ruling actually That I ruled in favor I ruled in favor of councillor mace's point of order If I I would ask the city attorney if a councilor moves to strike the resolution to comply with the president's concerns Um that that motion be reconsidered If if the president recognized you to make another motion. Yes, I think you could make another motion I I have I I ruled in favor of council mace's motion in front of His point of order and and then I think if you recognize councillor polino again, he can make another motion After the point of order has already been granted I don't know what his other motion is yet Whether or not it raises the same issue as the point of order or a different issue Do you have a point of information or point of order point of information? Yeah Point of information councillor city attorney blackwood. Is there can we Can I move to vote to over rule the ruling of the Council president you can make a motion to appeal the ruling of the of the president. Yes Councilor right. I'd like to appeal your decision Councillor perry has moved to appeal the decision by the chair Um, I will make a brief comment just to say that I think that When the chair makes a ruling, I hope that the council abides by that decision I think it is very very very unusual all the years that I have been on this council to Hear a move to override the council president's Decision on a point of order Council city attorney blackwood. You there needs to be a second to that That motion does give us a second so seconded by councillor hanson. It's what's the vote councillor city attorney blackwood There's a majority vote And is this a debatable And I would say there are some grounds on which these motions are not debatable I believe this falls into the category that would be debatable Is there any discussion or are we ready to vote council? Yeah, I would just say For me the reason I would support it is because I don't fully understand Uh, the rule that we're referring to I would need to to better understand that and And how this applies and why that falls to the discussion of the council president So I would just need more clarity there It falls under a discretion of the council president because the city attorney has Ruled that it is my purview to make that decision I have Ruled on a point of order that was made that's the discretion of the council president when a point of order is made I have mentioned two different items that I believe are in conflict that are That are in some ways negate other actions that the council's already taking I would ask the council to respect that decision Councillor mason. Thank you president right. Um, I believe to address councillor hanson's question It's to preclude you from re-litigating, you know every time you make a decision and have it come up in the next meeting It's it's it's an efficiency perspective council makes a decision You know the intent is to abide by that and not have the same discussion each council meeting With that I'm hearing from this side. Could we ask for a five minute recess please five minute recess and we will keep it to five minutes We are in recess We are back councillors. Please take their seats Councillor mason. I'd like to recognize you. Thank you president right based on what we've just discussed I'd like to withdraw on my point of order at this time Councillor mason is withdrawing his point of order. I would now like to recognize councillor pine for a motion Uh, yes, mr. President as a co-sponsor of the resolution, uh, would like to move to Refer the resolution to the special committee that was created by council action at the last meeting And uh, not just refer it, but to request that that special committee specifically Address and and review with the department the data and essentially report back to the council when the committee comes back with their report In november thank you councillor pine. There's a second by councillor jang second by councillor jang discussion on the motion Hearing none the clerk, please councillor polina I would submit I would argue against Referring it to the special committee. I think that the point of this resolution was to provide a fast track response to a Further supporting the community Outside of the special committee. That's the reason why I wrote the resolution Although I understand the considerations here So I just like to be heard on my reasons for not supporting that And it's my point is that this issue is very important Um, this issue shouldn't be prejudiced by a special committee's involvement This committee as of right now exists on paper only The applications are still up for public Uh input An application process we should not outsource this responsibility We just allocated a significant amount of money creating Uh equivalent type positions in the budgetary item that we just discussed Um, I see this issue is not very different Um Again, I reference that the special committee's tasks do not include mental health and substance abuse And in this serious allocation of money the council should do it as we are the elected officials Um further it was my intent in crafting this response to for it to be Uh affected by the end of the year And I have concerns that it goes to special committee that won't have Um, I see this resolution no different than one when we added just to have to the water department I simplified it to make it as clear as possible for the council's discussion. Thank you Thank you. Councilor Polino. Are we ready for the vote clerk shall call the roll council for short Yes Councilor Hanson. Yes Councilor Polino Councilor Friedman Yes Councilor Mason. Yes Yes Yes Councilor Rue. Yes Councilor Shannon. Yes Councilor Tracy Yes City council president right Yes My vote to tender to that resolution has been referred to the special committee that is looking into All these police issues that moves us to item 5.14 the final item on our agenda tonight That was item 4.39 on the consent agenda. Councilor busher Yes, I'm going to approve and authorize the mayor to execute the letter of agreement with uvm Resolving both the water billing issues and establishing an annual omnibus payment beginning july 1st 2019 Subject to final review by the city attorney and chief administrative officer Moved by councilor busher seconded by councilor jane discussion councilor hansen Yeah, I had thank you councilor. I had asked to move this to deliberative Just in an effort to make sure that this item was as public as possible and to respond to a constituent Who wanted to hear more about this issue? So I was hoping to just get a Brief overview I know there's not a lot of folks left here in public But at least for the for the live stream and for the for the video would be helpful to Just get a brief overview of this Mr. Mayor are you going who's going to speak for the administration city attorney blackwood Thank you So this matter is a combination of two things one is a water billing issue that the department of public works Has been working on for a significant period of time where after doing a lot of work Hiring a consultant and having an auditor come in and assist in doing a review They found a number of problems with water meters There the water department has done part of The review they're working on a phase two of this review They so they started with the largest meters that have the biggest financial impact And we are bringing to you here a resolution with uvm Related to that water billing. And that's the primary issue here the second piece of this agreement is a What was a uvm fee for services agreement is now being called an omnibus payment That uvm pays to the city in lieu of of taxes because it is a non-taxable entity primarily And this allows it to contribute to city infrastructure and and I don't mean infrastructure I mean city operations operational underpinnings That it benefits from so that's the Thank you city attorney blackwood councillor shannon I just wanted to to make a point that City attorney blackwood Did not make which is that this water billing problem Started approximately 20 years ago and that I'm very glad that That it was discovered in recent years. It's been several years We've been working on correcting this and coming to an agreement With uvm on how to and and others on how to correct this and Thank the dpw staff for All of their work on this Thank you councillor shannon councillor busher Just one one Comment that was made at the board of finance by dpw staff They said that if any resident was concerned, I mean some people have investment properties And they were wondering whether or not they that they're they would be impacted whether they were overcharged or undercharged dpw said to please reach out to them and they could certainly Address that with them. They are working through some of the other meter now And I can't remember when they thought they might be finished with that Did you state that in your communication? No, I don't think so because they're only on phase two and there may be future phases beyond that Okay, okay, but anyways, I just want anyone watching if you have questions to please reach out to dpw They'll be happy to answer them Thank you councillor busher further discussion Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye Any opposed? That passes unanimously and I need a motion to adjourn so moved Moved by council roof seconded by Councillor Hanson all those in favor of adjournment, please say aye Any opposed? We are adjourned